• Jeroen Bollen (7/7) Apr 08 2014 This topic is somewhat related to this question I asked yesterday
• Adam D. Ruppe (13/17) Apr 08 2014 A class reference is basically a pointer, passing it by reference
• Jeroen Bollen (3/20) Apr 08 2014 Is there a documentation page about the 'uniform function call
• Adam D. Ruppe (2/4) Apr 08 2014 http://dlang.org/function.html#pseudo-member
• Jeroen Bollen (2/6) Apr 08 2014 Oh beat me to it.
• Jeroen Bollen (2/4) Apr 08 2014 Never mind, I think I understand all there is to it.

"Jeroen Bollen" <jbinero gmail.com> writes:

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'.

"Adam D. Ruppe" <destructionator gmail.com> writes:

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
}

"Jeroen Bollen" <jbinero gmail.com> writes:

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'?

"Adam D. Ruppe" <destructionator gmail.com> writes:

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

"Jeroen Bollen" <jbinero gmail.com> writes:

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.

"Jeroen Bollen" <jbinero gmail.com> writes:

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.