Literal types

[IchorDev]

On Saturday, 5 July 2025 at 15:48:43 UTC, Nick Treleaven wrote:
> On Saturday, 5 July 2025 at 10:50:13 UTC, Nick Treleaven wrote:
>> You can write `cast(ubyte) [1, 2]`:
>
> I meant `cast(ubyte[]) [1, 2]`.
>
>> https://dlang.org/spec/expression.html#cast_array_literal

It doesn’t work with static arrays so it doesn’t even solve one 
of Quinn’s first examples.
```d
auto x = [1,2];
ushort[2] y = cast(ushort[2])x;
```
The unspoken problem here is integer arithmetic: putting explicit 
casts on expressions SUCKS. There’s no nicer way to say it. The 
code ugliness is over 100%. If you haven’t had to add 
`cast(ushort)(exp)` to hundreds of expressions before, then count 
yourself lucky because it defaces pretty code into a hideous 
mess. I still fail to see Walter’s reasoning as to how 
compatibility with C’s integer promotion is more important than 
compatibility with its function pointer syntax, truncating 
implicit casts, etc. Integer promotion doesn’t even prevent 
overflows for int/long types, similar to how C’s `const` is 
completely useless. So, a better system would just ask the 
programmer to be specific about how they want/expect each integer 
to handle overflow (see std.checkedint… which doesn’t even work 
properly with bytes/shorts because of integer promotion).
Or: just add a flag to disable integer promotion. ;)