Hiho, first of all, thank you all for your fast responses.
On Friday, 14 February 2014 at 11:34:00 UTC, Marc Schütz wrote:
I'd like to add generic code. For an example, look at ranges: their `front` and `empty` must be callable without parens. This makes it possible for some ranges to have a normal member variable `front`, or a static enum member `empty` (which can even be tested for at compile time!), and for others to use methods/UFCS functions instead. Without these, a lot of the generic algorithms in `std.algorithm` would be full of `is(typeof(range.empty)) || is(typeof(range.empty()))`, or similar tests, making them harder to read and get right.
As I said I am still learning D (and I think I will never stop learning it xD) so sorry if I misunderstand certain programming patterns.
As far as I can imagine you could also implement ranges via front and empty functions and ranges could easily expose their variables as a getter method named front() or empty() and nobody would care if it is handled functionally or via a simple variable again.
I don't get why all the algorithms would be full of is(typeof(range.empty) || is(typeof(range.empty()) with the approach of getter methods for front and empty or am I wrong?
Robin
