This topic is somewhat related to this question I asked yesterday on StackOverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/q/22921395/2558778

Basically, why is this its own variable? Why doesn't D simply use the variable it was called with?

https://gist.github.com/Binero/10128826

I don't see why this needs to be a new variable and cannot simply be 'passed-by-reference'.

On Tuesday, 8 April 2014 at 14:04:01 UTC, Jeroen Bollen wrote:
> Basically, why is this its own variable? Why doesn't D simply use the variable it was called with?

A class reference is basically a pointer, passing it by reference to each method would be a double pointer and wasted effort most the time; all most methods care about is where to get the object data, they don't need to know how the caller was getting to the object data.

> I don't see why this needs to be a new variable and cannot simply be 'passed-by-reference'.

You can get that with UFCS btw:

class A {}

void f(ref A a) { /* modify a here and it will change */ }

void main() {
  A a = new A;
  a.f; // a is passed by reference
}

On Tuesday, 8 April 2014 at 14:13:10 UTC, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> On Tuesday, 8 April 2014 at 14:04:01 UTC, Jeroen Bollen wrote:
>> Basically, why is this its own variable? Why doesn't D simply use the variable it was called with?
>
> A class reference is basically a pointer, passing it by reference to each method would be a double pointer and wasted effort most the time; all most methods care about is where to get the object data, they don't need to know how the caller was getting to the object data.
>
>> I don't see why this needs to be a new variable and cannot simply be 'passed-by-reference'.
>
> You can get that with UFCS btw:
>
> class A {}
>
> void f(ref A a) { /* modify a here and it will change */ }
>
> void main() {
>   A a = new A;
>   a.f; // a is passed by reference
> }

Is there a documentation page about the 'uniform function call syntax'?

On Tuesday, 8 April 2014 at 14:23:02 UTC, Jeroen Bollen wrote:
> Is there a documentation page about the 'uniform function call syntax'?

http://dlang.org/function.html#pseudo-member

On Tuesday, 8 April 2014 at 14:23:02 UTC, Jeroen Bollen wrote:
> Is there a documentation page about the 'uniform function call syntax'?

Never mind, I think I understand all there is to it.

On Tuesday, 8 April 2014 at 14:26:46 UTC, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> On Tuesday, 8 April 2014 at 14:23:02 UTC, Jeroen Bollen wrote:
>> Is there a documentation page about the 'uniform function call syntax'?
>
> http://dlang.org/function.html#pseudo-member

Oh beat me to it.