Tsoding streamed about D

[Richard (Rikki) Andrew Cattermole]

On 29/03/2025 4:27 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 3/25/2025 4:19 AM, Mike Shah wrote:
>> Indeed, I wrote my own 'DynArray' type for use in betterC. Declaration 
>> is with 'DynArray!int intArray' for example. I then used overloads for 
>> opSlice and such to get pretty much the same functionality (e g. auto 
>> slice = intArray[2..4]). I can also wrap that with a reference counted 
>> type to help avoid leaks if lifetime and scope varies :)
> 
> Several of us studied reference counting for a while, and came to the 
> unfortunate conclusion that is wasn't practical to make it memory safe 
> without a GC or a borrow checker. Ref counting also has performance issues.
> 
> (Holding a non-refcounted reference to the payload of a refcounted 
> object runs the risk of becoming a dangling pointer, but if that is 
> disallowed, performance problems ensue.)
> 
> I use allocated slices all the time that don't use the GC, but I take 
> care to manage the memory manually.

There is only two solutions that I've come up with that solves this:

1. Have a proper DFA solution to escape analysis
2. Disable any action that can lead to borrowing

For system handles both work fine, and the second is needed for the 
first anyway.

And as Walter knows, I've been hammering on the DFA language features 
stuff for a while pretty heavily. I'm waiting on an update to see what I 
need to do next for him.