On Saturday, 29 December 2012 at 22:25:35 UTC, FG wrote:
Slices are great but not really what I had expected, coming from Python. I've seen code like s[a..$-b] used without checking the values, just to end up with a Range violation. But there are 3 constraints to check here:a >= 0 && a + b <= s.length && b >= 0That's way too much coding for a simple program/script that shortens a string, before it prints it on a screen. If I can't write s[0..80] without fear, then let there at least be a function that does it like Python would.
Why?
Additionally, as strings are UTF-8-encoded, I'd like such a function to give me proper substrings, without multibyte characters cut in the middle, where s[0..80] would mean 80 characters on the screen and not 80 bytes.
This is a common fallacy when dealing with Unicode. Please see the linked and the following points:
http://utf8everywhere.org/#myth.utf32.o1
