Walter Bright wrote:
What platforms for dmd would you be most interested in using?
.net
jvm
mac osx 32 bit intel
mac osx 64 bit intel
linux 64 bit
windows 64 bit
freebsd 32 bit
netbsd 32 bit
other?
My choice, BY FAR, would be Mac OSX 32 bit.
When I started my current D project, six months ago or so, it looked
like GDC mac support was on a steady, healthy incline, and that choosing
D as a development platform would yield full mac compatibility in the
very near future.
Supporting the mac platform is absolutely essential for my product, so
without a viable D compiler, I'll have to rewrite a bunch of code in C,
which would make me very sad.
The 64-bit win/lin/mac platforms would also be nice to have. But as long
as every 64-bit OS provides legacy support for 32-bit apps, I consider a
64-bit D compiler pretty low priority, for the type of work I'm
currently doing.
The bsd platform is completely off my radar screen, and given Walter's
limited resources, I'd be disappointed to see these given much attention.
.NET and the JVM would be compelling for the marketing of D, making the
language seem more mainstream and widely accessible. But I personally
wouldn't find much use in them. The primary benefit of D, for me, is
escaping from the confines of the VMs and being able to do system-level
stuff.
I frequently develop for both the CLR and the JVM, but when I do so, I
prefer C# and Java, respectively. I can't think of a single reason I'd
ever elect to write D for a VM platform.
--benji
PS -- Game console platforms would be very very cool as well. For me,
I'd be interested in the cell processor, for the PS3. HOWEVER, since the
native PS3 SDK is proprietary (with a $10,000 licensing fee), and since
linux on the PS3 uses artificially crippled hardware, my interest in
developing anything on the PS3 is little more than casual curiosity.
