Proposal for fixing dchar ranges

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:30:07 -0400, Walter Bright  
<newshound2 at digitalmars.com> wrote:

> On 3/10/2014 6:35 AM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
>> An idea to fix the whole problems I see with char[] being treated  
>> specially by
>> phobos: introduce an actual string type, with char[] as backing, that  
>> is a dchar
>> range, that actually dictates the rules we want. Then, make the  
>> compiler use
>> this type for literals.
>
> Proposals to make a string class for D have come up many times. I have a  
> kneejerk dislike for it. It's a really strong feature for D to have  
> strings be an array type, and I'll go to great lengths to keep it that  
> way.

BTW, this escaped my view the first time reading your post, but I am NOT  
proposing a string *class*. In fact, I'm not proposing we change anything  
technical about strings, the code generated should be basically identical.  
What I'm proposing is to encapsulate what you can and can't do with a  
string in the type itself, instead of making the standard library flip  
over backwards to treat it as something else when the compiler treats it  
as a simple array of char.

-Steve