@property - take it behind the woodshed and shoot it?

[JS]

On Thursday, 24 January 2013 at 08:35:01 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> This has turned into a monster. We've taken 2 or 3 wrong turns 
> somewhere.
>
> Perhaps we should revert to a simple set of rules.
>


Here is my mindless proposal after reading some of the posts.


1. Properties are data. Cannot be called with parenthesis, unless 
it returns a delegate, in which case the delegate is called. The 
address of a property is invalid(possibly gotten through a trait).

2. Properties cannot be used in UFCS calls, unless they return a 
delegate. Only UFCS chaining allows for parenthesis-less calls. 
e.g., (). -> .

Properties are great, C# doesn't have any issues with them... so 
why should D? From the little reading, the best I can tell is 
that the issue comes directly from UFCS and trying to avoid using 
parenthesis.

Conflating the issue between properties and UFCS isn't an issue 
with properties or UFCS but with distinguishing between them. 
UFCS wants property like behavior but then that causes problems 
with properties themselves. Properties want function call 
behavior but then that makes them look like functions, yet this 
defeats the purpose of a property.

Alternative, use a different syntax for chaining UFCS's. Instead 
of using ()., use something like func1:func2:func3:func4; where : 
seems to be a somewhat unused symbol... ~, >, >>, or others could 
potentially be used. Such a symbol AUTOMATICALLY is replaced with 
`().` since everything is a function call. (no properties can 
exist in the chain unless they return delegates, in which case 
the delegate is uses)