https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/13539

Yes, real, live modules!

(I can hardly believe this works!)

On Sunday, 16 January 2022 at 09:47:00 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/13539
>
> Yes, real, live modules!
>
> (I can hardly believe this works!)

What's the intended use-case for this? If I'm using ImportC to import the header file for an existing C library, it's not going to contain a D-specific feature like this. If I'm writing a new library, and I want it to be usable from C, I can't use __import in the header file, because my C compiler won't recognize it. And if I only want my library to be usable from D, then I can just write a D module, and use a normal D import statement.

I guess it makes it possible to write code like this:

    /* example.h */
    #ifdef __IMPORTC__
    __import code.stdc.stdio;
    #else
    #include <stdio.h>
    #endif

    void example(void) { puts("example"); }

...but I'm struggling to see what advantages an example like the above has compared to the status quo. Slightly faster compile times, because __import is faster to process than #include? Less namespace pollution, because imported symbols aren't visible outside of the C header but #included symbols are?

On Sunday, 16 January 2022 at 09:47:00 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/13539
>
> Yes, real, live modules!
>
> (I can hardly believe this works!)

Next, add syntax for D slices to importC so we can cite the D compiler as prior art and finally get dynamic arrays that know their length into standard C. ;)

On 1/16/2022 6:55 AM, Paul Backus wrote:
> What's the intended use-case for this?

You no longer need dtoh if you're using ImportC.

On Sunday, 16 January 2022 at 09:47:00 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/13539
>
> Yes, real, live modules!
>
> (I can hardly believe this works!)

Would it be possible to have a block of ImportC code in D code? For instance for people gradually converting C code to D code.

On 1/16/2022 2:31 PM, jmh530 wrote:
> Would it be possible to have a block of ImportC code in D code? For instance for people gradually converting C code to D code.

I had thought of that, as I've done gradual conversions myself. But using version's on the D side and #if on the C side works well enough, and I'd hate for it to be more than a temporary state of the code.

On Sunday, 16 January 2022 at 09:47:00 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/13539
>
> Yes, real, live modules!
>
> (I can hardly believe this works!)

This dialect of C- what if it was called C+, and was a superset? C with some D features.

Just needs a preprocessor.

On Friday, 28 January 2022 at 02:56:02 UTC, James Lu wrote:
>
> This dialect of C- what if it was called C+, and was a superset? C with some D features.
>
> Just needs a preprocessor.

just call it: DC