• timotheecour (37/37) Feb 11 2013 I'd like to suggest a new feature to help discoverability : a

"timotheecour" <thelastmammoth gmail.com> writes:

I'd like to suggest a new feature to help discoverability : a 
function in phobos that finds candidate function names given 
input-output constraints (not just type constraints) that the 
function should satisfy (and optionally, other constraints such 
as type traits). That'll be valuable not only within phobos but 
also for user packages (potentially in online packages).

Example usage:

----
import std.typecons : tuple;
import std.tools : findFunctionByInputOutput; //could be put there
auto candidates = findFunctionByInputOutput(tuple("rocks", 
"ks"),true);
writeln(candidates); //the user can then lookup each function in 
the docs
// prints :["endsWith"]; //there might be other matching functions
assert("endsWith" in candidateFunctions.byName); //there might be 
other
----

Implementation:
This would go over each function in each module of std, filter 
out the ones incompatible with input-output arguments (with 
__traits(compiles,...)), and then return the ones that satisfy 
the input-output constraint(s).

For multiple constraints syntax could be:
auto candidates = findFunctionByInputOutputs(tuple(tuple("rocks", 
"ks"),true,tuple("rocks", "cks"),true));

Tuples seem necessary to allow mixed types in arguments.
Potentially only  pure functions would be searched to avoid side 
effects or writing to disk etc. In addition, each attempt would 
be protected by a try catch block, and maybe a timeout.
Some provision could be given to extend search in user 
packages/modules, and for other type constraints. The returned 
candidates could be a lazy range of struct containing 
module/file/line/function signature/ddoc info of functions that 
match constraints.

This doesn't sound too hard to implement. Is there interest or 
suggested improvements?