Get rid of isInfinite()?

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:26:22 -0400, Mehrdad <wfunction at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I feel like isInfinite is useless for typical cases... the only  
> "infinite" (perhaps I should call it "unbounded" instead?) range I've  
> ever realistically come across is a stream, like console input or a  
> network stream.
>
> Of course, isInfinite doesn't make any sense for any type of wrapper  
> around console input -- is it true or false?
> You can't tell, because it depends on whether the input is redirected.
> If the console input was redirected, then it would be finite, with a  
> certain length (the length of the file).
> If not, then it would be infinite (er, unbounded).
>
> So IMHO, we should deprecate isInfinite entirely, and instead rely on  
> length being size_t.max.
>
> Not only would it make more sense, but it would make it possible to  
> create a random-access wrapper around an input range (like console  
> input), which lazily fetches its data.
> Then you can work with console input like a regular string!

I think you misunderstand an infinite range.  There are plenty of truly  
infinite ranges available.

An example infinite range:

struct Infinite
{
    int x;
    @property int front() { return x;}
    void popFront() {}
    enum empty = false;
}

length has nothing to do with infinite ranges.  In fact, infinite ranges  
should have no length member.

-Steve