UFCS chains are problematic when a symbol is ambiguous (eg after import std.stdio:write;import std.file:write);

I previously suggested to add the syntax

'arg1.(std.file.write)(arg2)'

(see 'support UFCS with fully qualified function names (was in "digitalmars.D.learn")' to avoid breaking UFCS chains.

Others have suggested using renamed local imports:

import std.file:write2=write;

'arg1.write2(arg2)'

This issue keeps coming up, eg 'http://forum.dlang.org/post/mailman.980.1370764406.13711.digitalmars-d@puremagic.com', prompting some to prefer symbols with unique, redundant names eg std.compress.lzw.lzwCompress instead of std.compress.lzw.compress.

However I found a much better way:

import std. typetuple:Alias;

'arg1.Alias!(std.file.write).arg2'

Interestingly, I haven't found this pattern in phobos.

advantage:

* UFCS chain not broken; no loss of efficiency

* library solution, already works, no need to add new syntax

* avoids the renamed local imports, which I argue is a bad idea (makes it harder to search for usages of a function, ie 'grep' won't work)

* systematic way to handle the such cases, whereas renamed local imports require to 'guess' a good name, eg import std.file:write2=write;

* renamed local imports require 1 import declaration syntax per ambiguous UFCS function (eg import std.file:write2=write needed even if import std.file is already there), whereas a single import std.typetuple declaration handles all ambiguous cases).

Bigger example:

----

void main(){

import std.typetuple;

import std.stdio;

import std.file;

import std.range;

import std.algorithm;

"hello2".Alias!(std.stdio.write);

3.iota.map!(a=>a*a).Alias!(std.algorithm.reduce!"a+b").Alias!(std.stdio.writeln);

}

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