• Jesse Phillips <jessekphillips+D gmail.com> Mar 15 2011

Jesse Phillips <jessekphillips+D gmail.com> writes:

Jens Wrote:

 I didn't ask how to do composition in D. I asked why composition cannot 
 be done via derivation, i.e., the reasoning behind the language design 
 choice. A design faux paus IMO. 


Sorry that is a good point. Based on the other threads it seems you feel syntax
for composition is not important because the inheritance syntax is cleaner. As
syntax is not a indicator of bad design (is definitely a reason not to use a
language) let me point out this design benefit.

As a someone not familiar with C++ I would not understand the implications,
such as the issue with slicing, I would say, "Yeah I know how inheritance
works" and use struct inheritance as though it was the same as class. With a
completely new construct, as a new user of D, I see that I don't understand
what happening and must find out what 'alias this' is doing.

You mentioned that we shouldn't cater to those that don't RTFM. Languages like
C++ and D are large in the number of features they have. A new user could read
about everything in the language, but they will not remember every pitfall for
every feature (how the differ in every situation), or every feature in the
language (alias this).

You do seem to have a very strange taste. The fact that you do not like they
syntax is of no interest to the development of D, unless you can provide a good
reason on what is wrong with the syntax or why another one is better.