Types: The Next Generation (Was: Why is phobos so wack?)

[Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) via Digitalmars-d]

On 07/10/2017 11:58 AM, bpr wrote:
> 
> You've seen this, right?
> 
> https://wiki.dlang.org/User:9rnsr/DIP:_Template_Parameter_Constraint
> 
> A small step in one such direction, influenced by C++ concepts. That 
> proto-DIP also raises a question I always had about why D doesn't allow 
> chained template instantiation, but that's another DIP for another time.
> 

Yea, I've seen that. It'd be a nice improvent for D and I'm definitely 
in favor of it.

It doesn't especially excite me though just because it's a small 
incremental change and creates further syntactical differences between 
handling runtime-oriented symbols and compile-time-oriented symbols. Ie, 
I'd prefer "InputRange r" over "T r if InputRange" because it's vastly 
simpler and more consistent with non-templated variable declarations. 
But in a practical sense, that's be a much more major and difficult to 
retrofit that onto D, so the DIP sounds like an appropriate (if 
unexciting) direction for D to take.

But what I find much more interesting than that DIP (again, from a 
purely academic standpoint) is taking all of these abilities and finding 
a way simplify them, while retaining all of their power, and create more 
overall consistency[1]. (That was *exactly* one of my big original draws 
to D in the first place - it took C++, then cleaned it all up and 
enhanced it. I have interest in brainstorming the same for D. I think 
there's been enough practical experience using D at this point for more 
streamlined designs to now be possible.)

[1] Heck, on the consistency front, it even bugs the hell out of me when 
people do "foo()" to call/define a function, but then deliberately stick 
with "if ()"-style instead for keywords. Both are "identifier followed 
by parens", but whether or not a space is added between is *different* 
depending on whether the identifier is a symbol or a keyword. 
Unnecessary inconsistency. Maybe it's all the puzzle games I've played 
over my lifetime, but...want...to...simplify... ;)