Metaprog can be abstruse

[bauss]

On Monday, 4 July 2022 at 08:24:01 UTC, user1234 wrote:
> Example:
>
> ```d
> auto genDecimalRanks()
> {
>     import std.conv;
>     auto r = 1;
>     auto result = "[";
>     foreach (i; 1 .. 11)
>     {
>         result ~= to!string(r);
>         if (i < 10)
>             result ~= ", ";
>         r *= 10;
>     }
>     result ~= "]";
>     return result;
> }
>
> /// like 
> [1,10,100,1000,10000,100000,1000000,10000000,100000000,1000000000]
> immutable decimalRanks = mixin(genDecimalRanks);
> ```
>
> It takes much more space and time to write DDOC + the generator 
> than the space + time required to write the equivalent explicit 
> declaration without comments, i.e "self documenting".
>
> So metaprog is not the panacea, do you think to that before 
> "meta-progrogramming", or do you "meta-prog" just because it's 
> nice ?

If you don't like the iota version then you can just do this:

(Modified version of yours.)

```d
auto genDecimalRanks()
{
     import std.conv;

     auto r = 1;
     int[] result = [];

     foreach (i; 1 .. 11)
     {
         result ~= r;
         r *= 10;
     }

     return result;
}

/// like 
[1,10,100,1000,10000,100000,1000000,10000000,100000000,1000000000]
static immutable decimalRanks = genDecimalRanks();
```

Everything at compile-time doesn't have to be strings and mixin :)

static and enum will trigger ctfe.