On 4/18/2016 8:20 PM, Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d wrote:
Except that unfortunately, the compiler _does_ do attribute inference for
auto return functions now, because the body is guaranteed to be available.
Relying on that inference in a public API that's part of a library will
easily lead to code breakage when the function implementation is changed (or
even when a function that it calls is changed, if that affects its
attributes).
Personally, I think that adding attribute inference for auto return
functions was a mistake and just encourages bad practices, but unless Walter
can be convinced that it was such a bad idea that it needs to be reverted
(and break whatever code thatt that would break), we're stuck with it.
Regardless, I think that it's clear that if you want a stable API, you need
to infer attributes as little as possible.
Auto function attribute inference is a good idea. They really aren't
conceptually different from templates. Note that the mangling of an auto
function will change if its attributes change, thus meaning you should get a
link failure.
Attribute inference is a huge win for D, it makes the mass of attributes
manageable.
