On Mon, 17 May 2004 00:26:24 -0400, Vathix wrote:

>> What is annoying is the D compiler's failure to notice this as it does an implicit cast that does not actually convert the D string into a C string.
> 
> A char* isn't necessarily a C string. When char[] converts to char* it just drops the length, like it does from int[] to int* etc.

Technically you are correct. A C-string is a (char *) AND the set of characters pointed to is deemed terminated when a zero-value char is found.

However a (char *) is also not a (char []) either.
The first is a pointer to a char, and the second is structure whose first
element is a 4-byte integer followed by zero or more char elements.

I thought that when a D string (char []) is converted to a C string (char
*) a new piece of RAM is allocated (length of D-string + 1) and the char
elements are copied to the new RAM location and a zero-char is placed in
the last RAM position. The new RAM location is returned (char *).

I'd still like the compiler to tell us when its implicitly casting char[] to char* for us. Wouldn't it save many annoying buglets?

Something like this should do the conversions too, IMO ...

  char *x;
  char[] y;
  . . .
  x = cast (char *)y;
  y = cast (char [])x;

-- 
Derek
17/May/04 4:34:02 PM