"deadalnix" <deadal...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:jnhopd$gi3$1...@digitalmars.com... > > - out arguments. We can return tuples, out argument is going backward in > history.
You can overload on out parameters. You can't overload on return type. So without "out" making an optional output param would be harder to make and uglier to use. That could be even more of a problem if the out param in question is expensive to compute. Also, out is nice when interfacing with C. Returning tuples wouldn't help here. I do agree that maybe we should *prefer* returning tuples over out params (at least once we kill off the useless comma operator and have a concise built-in syntax for tuples), but I don't think tuples are enough to replace out entirely.
