repeat

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 1/17/11 2:14 PM, Tomek Sowiński wrote:
> Andrei Alexandrescu napisał:
>
>> On 1/17/11 1:53 PM, Tomek Sowiński wrote:
>>> Andrei Alexandrescu napisał:
>>>
>>>> std.range has a function repeat that repeats one value forever. For
>>>> example, repeat(42) is an infinite range containing 42, 42, 42,...
>>>>
>>>> The same module also has a function replicate that repeats one value a
>>>> specific number of times. In fact, replicate can be expressed as an
>>>> overload of repeat, so that's what I just did (not committed yet):
>>>> repeat(42, 100) repeats 42 one hundred times, repeat(42) repeats 42
>>>> forever. I'll put replicate on the deprecation chute.
>>>>
>>>> So far so good. Now, string has its own repeat. repeat("abc", 2) returns
>>>> the string "abcabc".
>>>>
>>>> I want to generalize the functionality in string's repeat and move it
>>>> outside std.string. There is an obvious semantic clash here. If you say
>>>> repeat("abc", 3) did you mean one string "abcabcabc" or three strings
>>>> "abc", "abc", and "abc"?
>>>>
>>>> So we need distinct names for the functions. One repeats one value, the
>>>> other repeats a range. Moreover, I'm thinking sometimes you want to
>>>> repeat a range lazily, i.e. instead of producing "abcabc" just return a
>>>> range that looks like it.
>>>>
>>>> Ideas for a good naming scheme are welcome.
>>>
>>> Overload cycle and call it a day?
>>
>> cycle(r, n) already has a meaning: cycle r for a maximum total of n
>> elements.
>
> Now I'm confused. The docs say it's an initial index...

Sorry, my bad. You're right. Still, cycle(r, n) has a meaning distinct 
from what we might need. Essentially I'm looking for a name for the 
function array(take(cycle(range), n * range.length)). That's what 
std.string.repeat does currently.

Andrei