On Sunday, 9 April 2017 at 03:26:14 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
My previous version did not survive implementation. Here's the
revised version. I have submitted it as a DIP, and there's a
trial implementation up:
https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/6681
1. This still adds another special case to the language under the
guise of not breaking backward compatibility. This is exactly how
C++ became the mess it is today.
2. You're adding in ref-counting in an area where it's only
available to one very specific part of the language. This is one
of the reasons people don't like Go: it offers language features
only in specific places at the compiler devs discretion. It would
be far better to ACTUALLY add in ref-counting as a real part of
the language (like Andrei has been pushing for the past two
years, RCStr anyone?). Or to go with deadalnix's scheme which
would allow it to be part of the library and @safe. This would
allow it to be used in other areas in user code where it makes
sense.
For the fourth time:
You're missing the forrest for the trees. D needs a general
solution to the problem of GC code in Phobos. This tackles one
specific area via special case but leaves every other GC
allocation in Phobos, with no way to make it @safe @nogc. These
will either require the holistic approach eventually or more
special cases.
