to return a pair struct, but still, what could be simpler than returning
an index? It's easy to construct the value you want (before or after),
and if you both multiple values, that is also possible (and probably
results in simpler code).
All what you can do with the index is
1. compare it against the length of the searched string to test if the
search was successful
2. slice the searched string
3. do something rather special
What else would you do? You'd just have to store the searched string as
a temporary, and then you'd slice the searched string (for 2.), or
compare it against the length of the searched string. You always have to
keep the searched string in a temporary. That's rather unpractical. Oh
sure, if you _really_ need the index (for 3.), then directly returning
an index is of course the best way.
With my approach, you don't need to grab the passed searched string
again. All of these can be done in a single, trivial expression (for 3.
getting the index only). Actually, compared to your approach, this would
just eliminate the trivial but annoying slicing code after the search
call, that'd you'd type in... what, 90% of all cases?
The thing about multiple return values is true (sadly), but in this
case, you could simply return a static array (char[][2]). At least that
should be possible in D2 at some point.
Maybe a struct would work fine too. But I don't like it, because the
programmer had to look up the struct members first. He had to memorize
the struct members, and couldn't tell what the function returns just by
looking at the function signature.
(Yay bikeshed issues.)
