On Saturday, 9 August 2025 at 04:02:03 UTC, Brother Bill wrote:
On Saturday, 9 August 2025 at 01:33:03 UTC, user1234 wrote:
On Friday, 8 August 2025 at 23:52:31 UTC, Brother Bill wrote:
D language supports shadowing members, where the shadowed
member has same name and different type on same type.
Why is this enabled, and when should one use this advanced
technique?
That's not considered as shadowing as you can distinguish the
two members using a qualified access chain.
```d
class A {int m = 1;}
class B.A {float m;}
assert((new B).A.m == 1);
```
I understand that members of various levels can be
distinguished.
What I don't understand is why one would use this technique.
As a regular user you probably don't need it.
I use it for meta programming and some quirky C++ interop where
things can't be directly translated, for example when mixing
virtual and non-virtual functions in C++ base/children classes
(can't overload by virtual in D).
This is just one of examples on learn forum some time ago that
shows some quirks of c++ interop and how overload set is used to
fix it.
https://forum.dlang.org/post/zmzzissfeqoqxojgp...@forum.dlang.org
Basically same approach can be used for example to nativize API
of C-style OOP like one used in GTK to make it feel more D.
That's being said, it is mostly for making API look nice to the
users.
