On Sunday, 3 August 2025 at 11:11:43 UTC, Brother Bill wrote:
In Programming in D book, page 247, it is written: Variables
of struct and class types are called objects.
This struck me as odd and confusing. I have always been taught
that objects are instances of classes. That is, new MyClass
creates an instance or object of MyClass.
There was a wall between value types and reference types.
Of course structs and class types are both user defined types,
but one with value semantics and the other with reference
semantics.
Given that most languages support both user defined value types
and user defined reference types, that D use the same term for
both instances.
Am curious whether experienced D developers actually refer to
both struct and class variables as "objects" without confusion.
Is this something that most D newbies struggle over?
Please assist with my "deprogramming" from "objects" being only
for reference types.
Classes and structs in C++ are both value types, and instances of
both are referred to as objects. This isn't unusual.
An object is a concrete instance of a type described by a class
or struct definition. It's the thing you're manipulating, not the
definition. Whether you're manipulating it directly or through a
reference makes no difference. Whether it's on the stack or the
heap makes no difference.
Consider that a pointer to a struct a reference to the struct
instance in the same way a class variable is a reference to a
class instance.
