On Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:41:33 -0500, Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisp...@gmx.com>
wrote:
In C++, I tend to declare all local variables const when I know that
they aren't
going to need to be altered. I'd like to something similar in D.
However, D has
both const and immutable. I can see clear differences in how const and
immutable
work with regards to function parameters and member variables, but it's
not as
clear with regards to const and immutable.
immutable and const storage classes are identical as far as the compiler
is concerned (neither can ever be changed). However, immutable gives more
guarantees as a type modifier. I'd recommend immutable, because it's a
specialization, and while the compiler can know that in a current function
a const value is really immutable, it can't pass that knowledge to other
functions.
For example, a function may be overloaded on both const and immutable
because the immutable one can make more assumptions. If you declare your
variable const and call the function with your variable as the parameter,
then it calls the const version, even though the data is really
immutable. You lose out on some possible optimizations.
Also, pure functions that take immutable can be 'strongly pure' so can be
better optimized.
All this is moot of course if your variable is a value type :) But I'd
still recommend immutable even in those cases because the definition is
clearer -- immutable data can never change, it is assumed that const data
can change, but in your case, it will never change. If nothing else, it
conveys the most accurate information to the reader of the code.
-Steve
