After over a year of thinking about this (I remember bringing this up at DConf 2014), I finally wrote a DIP about introducing what I call “static inheritance” to D.
The principle is similar to C++ concepts: D already has a way of requiring a certain compile-time interface for templates to be instantiated, the most common being isInputRange. What is lacking right now in my opinion is helpful compiler error messages for when a type was intended to be, e.g. an input range but isn’t due to programmer error.
I tried a library solution first, assuming this would be easier to get accepted than a language change. Since there was nearly 0 interest, I had to write a DIP. Here’s hoping it’s more succesful.
Átila on Code 