Andrei Alexandrescu Wrote: > On 1/19/11 6:53 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote: > > On Wednesday, January 19, 2011 15:33:16 Andrei Alexandrescu wrote: > >> I'm consolidating some routines from std.string into std.array. They are > >> specialized for operating on arrays, and include the likes of insert, > >> remove, replace. > >> > >> One question is whether operations should be performed in place or on a > >> copy. For example: > > So I guess vote stays unchanged :o). > > >> Thoughts? > > > > Haven't we been using the approach that string operations generally make > > copies > > (in many cases slices) and marking functions that do it in place with > > InPlace? > > Problem is, even though the example uses strings, the functions apply to > all arrays.
The big difference is operating on immutable arrays vs mutable ones. For immutable arrays, you have to do copies. But mutable ones allow in-place editing. If I'm working with mutable arrays of ints, I don't want to have to type InPlace after every function and I *really* don't want the array to be copied or efficiency will go down the tubes. Nor do I want to add Copy to every string operation. This might be an argument to leave the string functions where they are. To a certain extent, strings are special, even though they really aren't. Is it too ugly to contemplate algorithms doing in-place operations on mutable arrays and return a copy instead for immutable ones?
