• Mahe (8/8) May 25 2007 Hi,
• David B. Held (7/13) May 25 2007 This is usually called "reflection", since it doesn't really imply code
• Sean Kelly (7/25) May 25 2007 Yup. About the only issue I have with metaprogramming in D (which this
• Craig Black (5/21) May 25 2007 No, a VM is not a requirement for introspection. Walter should be addin...

Mahe <maheweb web.de> writes:

Hi,

I have worked with D for some months. It is much better than C++ and a good



Meta-Programming!
In D it is only possible to create a class with a standard constructor from a
string with a class name in it. But there is no introspection of the structure
of the class, no dynamic method calls, no dynamic attribute reading or setting.
But such reflection possibilities are important in component based software
design of large systems.   

Also some notation of extra metadata to classes, fields and methods would be
good, like Java-Annotations. This would also be a powerful feature.

I don't know if for such features a VM is necessary!

Bye! 

"David B. Held" <dheld codelogicconsulting.com> writes:

Mahe wrote:
 I have worked with D for some months. It is much better than C++ and a good

 

Meta-Programming!
 In D it is only possible to create a class with a standard constructor from a
string with a class name in it. But there is no introspection of the structure
of the class, no dynamic method calls, no dynamic attribute reading or setting.
 But such reflection possibilities are important in component based software
design of large systems.   
 [...]

This is usually called "reflection", since it doesn't really imply code 
generation the way templates and macros does.  D does provide reflection 
through type tuples and class constructors, but it could use some better 

of the water.

Dave

Sean Kelly <sean f4.ca> writes:

David B. Held wrote:
 Mahe wrote:
 I have worked with D for some months. It is much better than C++ and a 


 But I think a really powerful aspect is missing in D compared to 

 In D it is only possible to create a class with a standard constructor 
 from a string with a class name in it. But there is no introspection 
 of the structure of the class, no dynamic method calls, no dynamic 
 attribute reading or setting.
 But such reflection possibilities are important in component based 
 software design of large systems.   [...]

 
 This is usually called "reflection", since it doesn't really imply code 
 generation the way templates and macros does.  D does provide reflection 
 through type tuples and class constructors, but it could use some better 

 of the water.

Yup.  About the only issue I have with metaprogramming in D (which this 
thread made me think of) is the lack of support for template class 
ctors.  And peripherally, I don't think there's any way to get a 
ParameterTypeTuple for a class ctor either.  I ran into this the other 
day and finally had to use an alias for the ctor arg list.


Sean

"Craig Black" <cblack ara.com> writes:

No, a VM is not a requirement for introspection.  Walter should be adding 
better reflection/introspection in the coming months.

-Craig

"Mahe" <maheweb web.de> wrote in message 
news:f36u6e$168a$1 digitalmars.com...
 Hi,

 I have worked with D for some months. It is much better than C++ and a 



 Meta-Programming!
 In D it is only possible to create a class with a standard constructor 
 from a string with a class name in it. But there is no introspection of 
 the structure of the class, no dynamic method calls, no dynamic attribute 
 reading or setting.
 But such reflection possibilities are important in component based 
 software design of large systems.

 Also some notation of extra metadata to classes, fields and methods would 
 be good, like Java-Annotations. This would also be a powerful feature.

 I don't know if for such features a VM is necessary!

 Bye!