On Monday, 26 November 2018 at 16:21:39 UTC, Joakim wrote:
I agree that it was a risky title, as many who don't know D
will simply see it and go, "Yet another slow compiler, eh, I'll
pass" and not click on the link. Whereas others who have heard
something of D will be intrigued, as they know it's already
supposed to compile fast. And yet more others will click on it
purely for the controversy, just to gawk at some technical
bickering.
I don't actually think it was risky. What are the odds that
someone was going to start using D for a major project but then
changed her mind upon seeing a title on HN or Reddit? Probably
very small that even one person did that.
On the other hand, it says a lot of other things:
- There's an active community that cares about the language.
- It's not a dying language.
- Fast compilation is a realistic possibility.
- There are users with the technical ability to make the compiler
faster.
And then there is always the fact that there was a story on
HN/Reddit about D. It's hard for publicity for a language like D
to be bad when so few people use it.
