I see this is a recurring rant (I apologize if this is a repeating topic, I'm new to the forums). Here's an example of something that should be simple in D but isn't:

enum string PATTERN = "abcd";
immutable char[10] repeatingPattern = PATTERN.cycle().takeExactly(10).array();

The fact that front(string) returns a dchar makes some really simple (and common) use-cases practically impossible.

Also note I can't cast to char[] in compile time? What's the reason for that?

I would recommend adding something like this to phobos (and in all fairness, it should have been the other way around):


auto noDecode(T)(T[] str) if (isNarrowString!(T[])) {
    static struct NoDecode {
        private T[] str;

        @property ref T front() {
            assert (!this.empty);
            return str[0];
        }
        @property bool empty() {
            return (str.empty);
        }
        void popFront() {
            if (!this.empty) {
                str = str[1 .. $];
            }
        }
        NoDecode save() {
            return this;
        }
    }
    return NoDecode(str);
}

On Thursday, 15 June 2017 at 15:47:54 UTC, Jonathan Shamir wrote:
> Also note I can't cast to char[] in compile time? What's the reason for that?

Have a look at:

https://dlang.org/phobos/std_utf.html#byCodeUnit
https://dlang.org/phobos/std_utf.html#byChar
https://dlang.org/phobos/std_string.html#.representation

On Thursday, 15 June 2017 at 15:50:42 UTC, Seb wrote:
> On Thursday, 15 June 2017 at 15:47:54 UTC, Jonathan Shamir wrote:
>> Also note I can't cast to char[] in compile time? What's the reason for that?
>
> Have a look at:
>
> https://dlang.org/phobos/std_utf.html#byCodeUnit
> https://dlang.org/phobos/std_utf.html#byChar
> https://dlang.org/phobos/std_string.html#.representation

Perfect, thanks!

On Thursday, June 15, 2017 15:47:54 Jonathan Shamir via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> I see this is a recurring rant (I apologize if this is a repeating topic, I'm new to the forums). Here's an example of something that should be simple in D but isn't:
>
> enum string PATTERN = "abcd";
> immutable char[10] repeatingPattern =
> PATTERN.cycle().takeExactly(10).array();
>
> The fact that front(string) returns a dchar makes some really
> simple (and common) use-cases practically impossible.
>
> Also note I can't cast to char[] in compile time? What's the reason for that?
>
> I would recommend adding something like this to phobos (and in all fairness, it should have been the other way around):

Yes, it should be the other way around, but changing it at this point without massive code breakage is very difficult if not impossible.

> auto noDecode(T)(T[] str) if (isNarrowString!(T[])) {
>      static struct NoDecode {
>          private T[] str;
>
>          @property ref T front() {
>              assert (!this.empty);
>              return str[0];
>          }
>          @property bool empty() {
>              return (str.empty);
>          }
>          void popFront() {
>              if (!this.empty) {
>                  str = str[1 .. $];
>              }
>          }
>          NoDecode save() {
>              return this;
>          }
>      }
>      return NoDecode(str);
> }

Already there:

http://dlang.org/phobos/std_utf.html#byCodeUnit

- Jonathan M Davis