Initially I was using this approach
but stopped for many reasons.

What could be done instead of "pseudo-member function"
(I am calling them: "external methods") ?

Let's say I would like to have "pseudo-member function" for wchar[] type

bool wchar[].like(wchar[] pattern) { .... }

in Harmonia I've created special wrapper

struct string
{
   wchar[] chars;
   static opCall(wchar[] s) { string s; s.chars = s; return s;  }
   bool like(wchar[] pattern) { .... }
}

Having this I am doing following when I need 'like'

ubyte[] loadFromUrl( wchar[] s )
{
    if( string(s).like("file://*") )
        .....
}

So I am not using 'string' as a type of variable but rather as a namespace designator. This shift of struct paradigm is a bit ugly (and probably less efficient a bit) but works.

This does not prevent to use string as a type of variable though.
But it does not allow you to have static variables of such strings....
(no ctors in structs!)

I am using string as a typename in harmonia.ui.controls.behaviors.LineEditor as type of dynamic text buffer.

Andrew.