Dean:
dmd compiles very quickly, but to compile writeln D has to digest a good amount of Phobos code.Are the reasons for this similar to why C++ STL is not an object code library ?
The reasons for the large amount of code compiled for a writeln are that: writeln is more powerful, Phobos modules import each other a lot. And several parts of Phobos are not compiled because there are templates everywhere. Take a look at Phobos sources and you will see.
Bye, bearophile