On Tuesday, 29 November 2022 at 18:59:46 UTC, DLearner wrote:
To me, it appears that there are really two (_entirely
separate_) concepts:
A. Supporting the useful concept of variable length (but
otherwise entirely conventional) arrays;
B. Supporting a language feature that acts as a window to an
array, through which that array can be manipulated.
And currently these two concepts are combined.
Yes, this is correct.
Suggestion: it would be clearer if the two concepts were
separated:
1. Convert 'int[] VarArr;' so it produces a straightforward
_value-type_ variable array, called 'VarArr';
2. Implement a new concept 'int slice Window;' to produce an
object of type 'int slice', called 'Window'.
'Window' is a 'slice' into an int array, not an array itself
or even a variable.
Opinions?
IMO you have it the wrong way around. The built in `T[]` type
should remain the way it is and be used if you want a slice
(i.e., a "window"). If you want a dynamic array with value
semantics, you should use a library-defined container type (e.g.,
`struct DynamicArray`).
Also, to avoid confusion, we should probably go through the
language spec and documentation and change it to say "slice"
instead of "dynamic array" whenever it refers to a `T[]`.
