Robin:
I always thought that D would be much easier to learn than C++
as all the people always say that C++ is the most complex
language. After what I have learned so far D seems to be much
more complex which isn't bad in general, but the learning curve
doesn't feel so well atm as I am mainly confused by many things
instead of getting what happens behind the scene.
D is not a small language, it contains many features, but
compared to C++ it has less corner cases, less traps, and on
default it's often safer than C++. In C++ you need to take care
of many details if you want to write correct code. Writing D code
should be faster and safer than C++.
immutability which result in zero performance boost in
non-paralell environments,
A good D compiler like ldc2 is sometimes able to optimize better
the code that uses immutable/const. But immutability is also for
the programmer: to make the code simpler to reason about, and
safer.
the fact that classes are by-ref and structs are by-val is also
confusing from time to time to be honest.)
D seems to be more problematic when it comes to learning how to
optimize the code.
Perhaps because D also focuses a little more on correctness of
the code. You see this even more in Ada language.
I would love to see how much performance a D vetaran like you
is able to grab out of my codes. Just tell me where I shall
upload them and I will do so.
I guess your code is composed by just one or two small D modules,
so you can post it here:
http://dpaste.dzfl.pl/
You can also upload there the Java code, to help me compare and
to know what you were trying to write :-)
However, what is true is, that it is (at least for me) harder
to learn how to write efficient code for D than it was to learn
it for C++.
But I think on average it's a little harder to write correct code
in C++ compared to D.
Bye,
bearophile
