Re: Function to print a diamond shape

[Jay Norwood]

not through yet with the diamond.  This one is a little faster.  
Appending the newline to the stars and calculating the slice 
backward from the end would save a w.put for the newlines ... 
probably faster.  I keep looking for a way to create a dynamic 
array of a specific size, filled with the init value I provide. 
Does it exist?

D:\diamond\diamond\diamond\Release>diamond 1>nul
brad: time: 19370[ms]
printDiamond1: time: 1140[ms]
printDiamond2: time: 1631[ms]
printDiamond3: time: 633[ms]
jay1: time: 459[ms]
sergei: time: 11886[ms]
jay2: time: 415[ms]
diamondShape: time: 4553[ms]
printDiamond: time: 187[ms]
printDiamonde2a: time: 139[ms]

void printDiamonde2a(in uint N)
{
    size_t N2 = N/2;
    char pSpace[] = uninitializedArray!(char[])(N2);
    pSpace[] = ' ';

    char pStars[] = uninitializedArray!(char[])(N);
    pStars[] = '*';

    char pNewLine[]=uninitializedArray!(char[])(2);
    pNewLine[] = '\n';

    auto w = appender!(char[])();
    w.reserve(N*4);

    foreach (n ; 0 .. N2 + 1){
        w.put(pSpace[0 .. N2 - n]);
        w.put(pStars[0 .. 2*n+1]);
        w.put(pNewLine[1]);
    }

    foreach_reverse (n ; 0 .. N2){
        w.put(pSpace[0 .. N2 - n]);
        w.put(pStars[0 .. 2*n+1]);
        w.put(pNewLine[1]);
    }
    write(w.data);
}