On 11/5/11 3:02 PM, bearophile wrote:
Andrei Alexandrescu:
If we avoid "auto" in documentation examples but we do use it in
everyday code, we effectively foster a style that's foreign and
non-idiomatic to newcomers.
Sample code should mimic real code. If real code would use auto,
sample code should use auto.
D programmers are probably able to learn to use auto later, because
it's handy, it's an attractor. On the other hand one of the main
purposes of the online documentation is to be as clear as possible. D
written by newbies is not the same D written by D experts. But
documentation must be written for D newbies too, because they are
ones that have more need of documentation. The code written in the
thousands of examples in the very good Pascal/Delphi docs was written
in a clear style that is not the same compact style an expert Delphi
programmer writes code. So I'd like D docs to avoid auto when the
types are not very clear. The purpose of the docs is not to shows
examples of idiomatic D code written by experts.
Patronizing one's reader is a common trap.
Andrei
