Proposal: Multidimensional opSlice solution

[Lars T. Kyllingstad]

Don wrote:
> Norbert Nemec wrote:
>> Don wrote:
>>> Norbert Nemec wrote:
>>>> Hi there,
>>>>
>>>> in implementing multi-dimensional arrays, the current way of 
>>>> overloading the slicing operator does not scale up.
>>>>
>>>> Currently, there is opIndex working for an arbitrary number of 
>>>> indices, but opSlice works only for one dimension. Ultimately, it 
>>>> should be possible to allow slicing for more than one dimension, and 
>>>> mixing it with indexing for e.g.:
>>>>     A[4,7..8,7,2..5]
>>>> So far, no clean solution for overloading this has been suggested.
>>>
>>> A solution was suggested while you were away.
>>> You don't need a new opRange operator, a simple tuple struct like:
>>> struct Slice(T) { T from; T to; }
>>> in std.object is enough.
>>> Note that:
>>> A[4, Slice(7,8), 7, Slice(2,5)]
>>>
>>> will work with the existing compiler. So it's just a tiny syntax 
>>> sugar issue.
>>
>> I know this solution. It is exactly the "syntax sugar" issue that I 
>> see as the problem here:
>>
>> The compiler would need to be aware of the data type Slice. It would 
>> therefore have to be something like a "builtin" type. If I am not 
>> mistaken, the language definition so far never makes use of "builtin" 
>> struct types.
> 
> You are mistaken <g>.
> object, TypeInfo, AssociativeArray, ...
> Complex will be added to that list, too.

It will?  For complex literals, then?

-Lars