On Saturday, 22 March 2014 at 13:36:01 UTC, Saurabh Das wrote:
The edge for D in our case comes from 3 factors -
1. A lot of statistical data from older C++ systems means
better assumptions and decisions in the new D system; and
But, clearly that is not necessarily a benefit of D. It is a
benefit of prior experience and the learning curve. If you said,
we use our data to not only make better assumptions/decisions,
but to do things in D that can not be done in C++ - then you make
a very strong case.
2. 20% of the system is latency-critical and 80% is not. D
allows us to quickly finish 80% and really concentrate on the
critical 20%. I must also comment upon how much more productive
it is to write a new system in D as compared with C++ - gives
us more time to think about the actual problem than try to jump
through the C++ hoops.
Productivity is very important and can mean big $$ for most
firms. But if latency is the critical factor in an all-or-nothing
game, then it is much less so. Maybe your game is different and
you have edge beyond low latency. I hope that is the case.
3. A much better type system - some checks can be moved to
compile time. Major benefit.
What is a simple example of something that could be done with D
but not C++ that has nothing to do with building things with less
developer time?
For example, I could see technical reasons why in certain
non-quant areas like XML parsing where D can be faster than C++.
(http://dotnot.org/blog/archives/2008/03/12/why-is-dtango-so-fast-at-parsing-xml/)
But then, with a large amount of time and unlimited funding the
techniques could probably be duplicated in C++.
Again, I don't think it is necessary to have any/many cases where
D beats C++ hands down in performance for its adoption to widen.
But to push D to a wider audience by focusing on areas where the
bar is already super high is tough. If I had money to invest in D
I would invest it in vibe rather than quant because the relative
advantages of D are so much higher.
Yes - R, Matlab et all won't be replaced by D most likely.
Let's wait and watch. However I disagree about the
HFT/low-latency side. Ofcourse there's no way to say for sure.
Let's check again in a year :)
Sounds good - keep us posted!
Thanks
Dan