Templates everywhere

[Walter Bright]

Philippe Sigaud wrote:
>     Years ago, although I had implemented templates for C++, I didn't
>     "get" them. Not at all. I didn't even plan to put templates in D,
>     because they seemed overly complex, ugly, and had little value.
> 
> That's interesting to know that you could implement templates, without 
> understanding them.

I think of it like a race car builder. I can build the cars, but I can't 
drive them worth squat. We are very fortunate, however, to have Andrei 
on board who literally wrote the book on how to drive them!



> The third 'leg' on which D templates rest is the alias parameters. I can 
> have access to any symbol, including other templates?  Oh yes!

In C++, these are called "template template parameters". It took me a 
long time to figure out what the point to template template parameters 
was, and then I wondered at the arbitrary restriction that they must be 
templates. Remove the restriction, and voila! Much more power! (And a 
much simpler explanation of them, too.)