On 12/28/2011 04:06 AM, Peter Alexander wrote: > string is immutable(char)[] > > I rarely *ever* need an immutable string. What I usually need is > const(char)[]. I'd say 99%+ of the time I need only a const string. > > This is quite irritating because "string" is the most convenient and > intuitive thing to type. I often get into situations where I've written > a function that takes a string, and then I can't call it because all I > have is a char[]. I could copy the char[] into a new string, but that's > expensive, and I'd rather I could just call the function. > > I think it's telling that most Phobos functions use 'const(char)[]' or > 'in char[]' instead of 'string' for their arguments. The ones that use > 'string' are usually using it unnecessarily and should be fixed to use > const(char)[]. > > In an ideal world I'd much prefer if string was an alias for > const(char)[], but string literals were immutable(char)[]. It would > require a little more effort when dealing with concurrency, but that's a > price I would be willing to pay to make the string alias useful in > function parameters.
Agreed. I've talked about this in D.learn a number of times myself. Ali
