On Tuesday, 18 December 2012 at 02:17:25 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
On 12/17/2012 6:13 PM, Rob T wrote:
Your suggestion concerning the use of zip files is a good
idea, although you
mention the encryption algo is very weak, but is there any
reason to use a weak
encryption algo, and is there even a reason to bother
maintaining compatibility
with the common zip format?
Using standard zip tools is a big plus.
Yes, but why limit yourself in this way? I suppose you could
provide a choice between different formats, but that's the wrong
approach. The compiler should instead be restructured to allow D
users to supply their own functionality in the form of user
defined plugins, that way you won't have to bother second
guessing what people need or don't need, or provide generic one
size fits all solutions that no one likes, and you'll gain an
army of coders who'll take D into very surprising directions that
no one could possibly predict.
Another nice fix would be to separate the CTFE interpreter out of
the compiler as a loadable library so it can be used outside of
the compiler for embedded D scripting, and possibly even for JIT
applications.
I expect there are a few more significant improvements that could
be made simply by making the compiler less monolithic and more
modularized.
Easier said than done, but it should be done at some point
because the advantages are very significant.
--rt
