The Case Against Autodecode

[Timon Gehr via Digitalmars-d]

On 30.05.2016 18:01, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 05/28/2016 03:04 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>> On 5/28/2016 5:04 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>> So it harkens back to the original mistake: strings should NOT be
>>> arrays with
>>> the respective primitives.
>>
>> An array of code units provides consistency, predictability,
>> flexibility, and performance. It's a solid base upon which the
>> programmer can build what he needs as required.
>
> Nope. Not buying it.

I'm buying it. IMO alias string=immutable(char)[] is the most useful 
choice, and auto-decoding ideally wouldn't exist.