On Sat, 25 Sep 2010 17:17:58 -0400, Andrei Alexandrescu
<[email protected]> wrote:
This has come up in http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=1482.
Should std.file.read() return void[] or ubyte[]? There's one matter with
assuming that void[] may contain pointers (which is not the case for
something read from a file), so possibly ubyte[] is a more accurate type
for describng raw bytes.
What are the pros and cons of returning void[] vs. ubyte[]?
Andrei
Pro:
Well, the very first thing I always do with std.file.read is to cast the
data to the type I'm working with. So:
auto data = cast(float[])read("my_data.raw");
vs.
auto data = cast(float[])(cast(void[])read("my_data.raw"));
Having read return ubyte would mean adding an extra cast in several use
cases
Con:
A void[] array is treated as having pointers in the GC, so extra false
pointers could be an issue.
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