Please change alias ReplaceArrayWithPointer = Flag!"replaceArrayWithPointer"

[H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 08:42:17PM +0000, Jack Stouffer via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Thursday, 21 January 2016 at 19:31:19 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> >* Do NOT alias Flag!"frob" to a new name. This is unnecessary,
> >unhelpful, and wasteful.
> 
> I disagree. Making an alias means the user does not have to import
> std.typecons in their code, and as a purely subjective measure,
> ReplaceArrayWithPointer.Yes looks better than
> Flag!"replaceArrayWithPointer".Yes.

Yeah, and it looks even worse in function signatures, especially when
default arguments are present:

	auto myFunc(T)(T data, Flag!"replaceArrayWithPointer" replaceArrayWithPointer = Flag!"replaceArrayWithPointer".Yes)
	{ ... }

vs.

	alias ReplaceArrayWithPointer = Flag!"replaceArrayWithPointer";
	auto myFunc(T)(T data, ReplaceArrayWithPointer replaceArrayWithPointer = ReplaceArrayWithPointer.Yes)
	{ ... }

Still pretty bad, but at least it's a few characters less.

On a tangential note, default arguments seriously should allow
abbreviated syntax, to prevent the blatant violation of DRY as shown
above:

	auto myFunc(T)(T data, ReplaceArrayWithPointer replaceArrayWithPointer = .Yes)
	{ ... }

Basically, inside a default argument spec, it should be as though the
delcaration were encased in a `with(T) { ... }` block where T is the
type of the argument.

Even better would be a way to not have to type out the variable name
when it is just the type name camelcased, but I haven't thought of a way
of doing this that fits in with D's current syntax just yet.  Some
manner of "eponymous variable", along the same idea as eponymous
templates.


T

-- 
Programming is not just an act of telling a computer what to do: it is also an act of telling other programmers what you wished the computer to do. Both are important, and the latter deserves care. -- Andrew Morton