Re: std.string will get the boot

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Lutger wrote:
On 01/29/2010 09:43 PM, bearophile wrote:
Andrei Alexandrescu:
I think the idea of tags is awesome, particularly because it doesn't
require one to divide items in disjoint sets. I'll think some more of 
it.

A hierarchical D/Python-like module system isn't the only way to 
organize blocks of code. Both future Windows file system and Google 
Email use tags to create groups of items in a less disjoint way. But I 
don't know if it's possible to design the equivalent of a module 
system based on tags instead of a hierarchy of modules/packages (and 
superpackages). It seems a cute idea.


This is about the documentation, which at the moment is based on the 
module system, type system and order of declarations. Such tags allow 
for better indexes, organization and search through the docs.

I don't think it would be too far-fetched to define and use tags for 
selective imports a la:

// inside std.algorithm
@tag(string, comparison) bool startsWith(...)(...) { ... }

// in client code
// get everything tagged with "string"
import std.algorithm : @tag(string);


Andrei