Why is overloading of the assignment operator not supported?
Most of the assignment operator overloading in C++ seems to be needed to just keep track of who owns the memory. So by using reference types coupled with GC, most of this just gets replaced with copying the reference itself. For example, given an array of class objects, the array’s contents can be moved, sorted, shifted, etc., all without any need for overloaded assignments. Ditto for function parameters and return values. The references themselves just get moved about. There just doesn’t seem to be any need for copying the entire contents of one class object into another pre-existing class object. Sometimes, one does need to create a copy of a class object, and for that one can still write a copy constructor in D, but they just don’t seem to be needed remotely as much as in C++. Structs, being value objects, do get copied about. A copy is defined in D to be a bit copy. I’ve never been comfortable with any object in C++ that does something other than a bit copy when copied. Most of thi
