• Lars T. Kyllingstad (18/18) Aug 13 2011 Today, I was very surprised to discover that the following compiles and
• Jonathan M Davis (7/28) Aug 13 2011 As I understand it, it's by design. I've used it elsewhere. I don't thin...

"Lars T. Kyllingstad" <public kyllingen.NOSPAMnet> writes:

Today, I was very surprised to discover that the following compiles and 
works:

    void foo(int i = 123, T)(T x)
    {
        import std.stdio;
        writeln(i, T.stringof, x);
    }

    void main()
    {
        foo(456.0);  // Prints "123double456"
    }

In other words, the compiler allows you to specify a default value for a 
function template parameter which is *not at the end of the parameter 
list* as long as the remaining parameters are automatically deduced.

Now, my question is:  Is this by design?  If so, I think it would be 
awesome, and I can put it to good use in the new std.path.  I do, 
however, not want to base my code on a compiler bug.

-Lars

Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg gmx.com> writes:

On Sunday, August 14, 2011 06:37:27 Lars T. Kyllingstad wrote:
 Today, I was very surprised to discover that the following compiles and
 works:
 
     void foo(int i = 123, T)(T x)
     {
         import std.stdio;
         writeln(i, T.stringof, x);
     }
 
     void main()
     {
         foo(456.0);  // Prints "123double456"
     }
 
 In other words, the compiler allows you to specify a default value for a
 function template parameter which is *not at the end of the parameter
 list* as long as the remaining parameters are automatically deduced.
 
 Now, my question is:  Is this by design?  If so, I think it would be
 awesome, and I can put it to good use in the new std.path.  I do,
 however, not want to base my code on a compiler bug.

As I understand it, it's by design. I've used it elsewhere. I don't think that 
it _always_ works, since it needs to be unambiguous (e.g. I could get it to 
work for std.utf.toUTFz), but it definitely works at least some of the time. I 
believe that there's stuff in Phobos which does it already, but I'd have to go 
digging.

- Jonathan M Davis