- They make namespacing of functions easier, eliminating the need for C++'s "argument-dependent lookup". The issues here are somewhat subtle and would take a lot of space to explain. But the end result is that we can remove a massive amount of confusion by getting rid of ADL.
- Error messages are much better, because the insides of templates never leak to users of the template.
- Typechecking is simplified, because we only have to typecheck each template once, at the time of definition, as opposed to repeatedly typechecking it from scratch every time it's instantiated. This, in theory, allows compilation to be faster.
This is unequivocally a good thing - I think maybe my disconnect here in how excited I am compared to others is that I'm comparing it to the experience of debugging lisp macros and everybody else is comparing it to the bottomless pit of despair that is C++ template errors ;)
Yes, to me, it's largely about better errors and such. If th generated code is wrong, it won't compile, so it's not _that_ level of bad. But this can't happen in Rust: http://tgceec.tumblr.com/
There's also the danger of something compiling where it shouldn't.
(this could easily be a stupid question; I know I've come across as condescending to you before by mistake and if I've somehow done it again please believe that I meant to come across as genuinely curious :)