not-virtual-by-default

Abstract

Virtual calls are inefficient, and through extensive discussion, it has been shown that it is impossible for an optimiser to safely finalise virtuals in any useful capacity in a non-JIT/VM environment. This DIP proposes that class methods need to be non-virtual by default, or D classes will always yield inferior performance characteristics to other native languages.

In support of this change, introduction of the ‘virtual’ keyword will be required, and a deprecation process similar to the introduction of override will be followed. ‘final’ will be preserved, and remain useful to effectively ‘seal’ a hierarchy, in the same way as is useful in Java, C++, and C# (via ‘sealed’).

Process

Introduction of virtual would be added in steps:

1. The virtual keyword is introduced; it becomes a warning to declare a virtual base function not marked virtual.
2. deprecate declaring virtual functions not marked virtual.
3. It becomes a compile error; virtual is enforced.

At this point, all methods are marked with either ‘virtual’, ‘override’, ‘final’, ‘abstract’, or are implicitly final.

Example

class Base
{
  f();  // <- warning->deprecated->error, f() is implicitly final
  virtual g();
  final h();
}

class Derived : Base
{
  override f()
  override g(); // <- valid
  override h(); // <- error, h() is explicitly final
}

Interfaces

For brevity, it is safe to assume all methods of an interface are implicitly virtual.

interface Interface
{
  f(); // <- implicitly virtual
}

class Class : Interface
{
  override f(); // <- f() is declared in an interface, which is implicitly virtual
}