Const system names

[bearophile]

Lars T. Kyllingstad:

>I don't agree that immutable should be the the default.  The default should be the most common case, which is mutable.<

Is it true that mutables are the most common? 

Is it true that mutables will be the most common in D programs written few years from now? You must design a language for tomorrow, not for yesterday.

Typing var " in the code is not that costly. While writing "immutable " often in the code is a lot of typing.

Scala e Clojure like immutables, they are good for multicores :-)

I've done a small search of the "val" and "var" attributes in Scala language:

val (immutables):
http://www.google.com/codesearch?q=%22val%22+lang%3Ascala
29_300

var (variables):
http://www.google.com/codesearch?q=%22var%22+lang%3Ascala
15_200

It's not a scientific search, but shows that immutables are not that uncommon in Scala.


>      const: manifest constants, no storage (like const in D1, enum in D2)
>   readonly: a read-only view of mutable data (like const in D2)
> immutable: immutable data (like now)

"const" and "readonly" are synonims, so I don't like those names, I prefer names that mean something different (related to their different semantics). (I agree that "valview" is not nice looking).

Bye,
bearophile