About typequalifier and generic containers.

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Sun, 05 May 2013 15:46:17 -0700, Simen Kjaeraas  
<simen.kjaras at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, 05 May 2013 23:32:47 +0200, Jonathan M Davis  
> <jmdavisProg at gmx.com> wrote:
>
>> I don't know what the solution is (Steven has some ideas, but I don't  
>> know
>> what they are), but if const and ranges are ever going to mix, we need  
>> to be
>> able to reasonably get tail-const ranges from const ranges. Otherwise,  
>> as soon
>> as you get a const range, it's pretty much useless.
>
> I wrote a proof-of-concept tail-const range framework at some point, and
> posted it to BugZilla[1]. It shows that such a thing is possible in the
> language as-is, however I don't think it would win a beauty contest.
>
> This is a hard problem to get right, and I'd love to see Steven's ideas.
>
> [1]: http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=5377

Stay tuned.  My ideas are evolving (article in progress).  I think it will  
not necessarily be an easy pill to swallow.

I want to get all my thoughts ironed out before posting.  But the gist of  
it is:

1. Yes, it is a big problem, and it's increasingly apparent that it needs  
to be solved.
2. It cannot be done via library.  We will necessarily need  
compiler/language help for this.
3. It will not be that disruptive, simply because nothing can do it  
properly now.  So I think the change will give a large ROI (that was for  
Don).

-Steve