auto: useful, annoying or bad practice?

[Nick Sabalausky]

I'm a die-hard static typing fan, hate dynamic languages, heck I 
dont even like structural typing (ex, as used by D ranges). And 
that's exactly why I *love* auto. It lets you have static typing 
without turning programming into a 2000's-era C++/Java-style 
royal anti-DRY PITA.

I also think auto is especially nice for NOT requiring a 
heavy-weight IDE, because it makes refactorings and type renaming 
much simpler.

In the very rare case that I'm not clear what type a var is, 
first of all, that's usually a sign something else is wrong with 
the code, and secondly, that's trivially answered by tossing in a 
"pragma(msg, typeof(xxxx))".

Now, all that said, using auto for a function signature's return 
type shouldn't usually be done, except in very careful, specific 
"voldemort type" kinds of situations (and even then, I dont see a 
real big point).