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

[Adam Wilson]

On Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:54:09 -0800, Andrei Alexandrescu  
<SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:

> On 1/24/13 4:08 PM, Adam Wilson wrote:
>> On Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:58:41 -0800, Andrei Alexandrescu
>> <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On 1/24/13 3:45 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>>>> On Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:51:32 -0500
>>>> Andrei Alexandrescu<SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:
>>>> No, you merely came up with *some* specific cherry-picked examples  
>>>> that
>>>> sparked *some* debate (with most of the disagreing coming from
>>>> you).
>>>
>>> I simply mentioned three reasons that came to mind.
>>>
>>> Andrei
>>
>> While I don't approve of Mr. Sabalausky's tone or attitude, the crux of
>> his argument is logically sound. The problem with @property isn't
>> @property, it's D's insistence on optional parens. If paren usage was
>> clearly defined then this would be a non-issue. I would like to point
>> out that I can't think of another systems/general purpose language that
>> has an calling syntax specification as vague and convoluted as D's. C#'s
>> is brutally simple. Java's is brutally simple. In C/C++ everything is a
>> function or field, so, brutally simple.
>>
>> Make D's calling syntax simpler, end optional parens!
>
> Simplicity is clearly good, but there's something to be said about those  
> warts in chained calls. The UFCS-enabled idioms clearly bring a strong  
> argument to the table, there's no ignoring it.
>
> Andrei

Then @property needs to be fixed such that optional parens don't effect it  
one way or the other. Removing the concept of properties and making  
functions that look like properties through optional parens is a very poor  
(and lazy) solution. As Mr. Ruppe pointed out, properties are DATA, and  
functions do stuff. That statement alone is an excellent argument for  
clearly delineating which is which... Properties are not functions.

-- 
Adam Wilson
IRC: LightBender
Project Coordinator
The Horizon Project
http://www.thehorizonproject.org/