Associative Arrays in the data segment

[Daniel Murphy via Digitalmars-d]

"Steven Schveighoffer"  wrote in message 
news:mg8nd3$1fq5$1 at digitalmars.com...

> Well, it was a call to action by the language designer "here's a fun 
> project anyone can do". Would be a shame for an unsuspecting person to do 
> that, and then find out "oh, we can't use your work, because the compiler 
> has an implementation already, and (insert some wrinkle why it's too 
> difficult to update the compiler version to do what yours does)"

You're overestimating the difficulty of changing the implementation in the 
compiler.

> Yes, I understand this. But I'm very firmly against putting more magic 
> into the compiler. How many bugs or barriers to improvement are root 
> caused by compiler magic treatment of something?

Not that many?  How many improvements don't happen despite lack of barriers?

> There are many stupid limitations that should have been fixed years ago. 
> And I don't disagree this is one of them. I just disagree that this is a 
> "fix". It's quite literally the introduction of a new problem that we 
> don't need.

It's trading one problem for another.  Current problem: feature doesn't 
work.  New problem: somebody might have more trouble doing something they 
probably won't do anyway.  It's a win.