language_fan wrote:
On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:39:29 -0400, Justin Johansson wrote:
People might remember that when I picked up D and joined this forum just
some 3 or so weeks ago I made mention of being a Scala refugee.*** When
asked what I didn't like about Scala I commented about there being too
many language constructs.
Compared to D that is not even true. The Scala language spec lists 40
keywords + 10 additional reserved tokens. D 2.0 spec lists 106 keywords +
a bit over 60 reserved tokens. In general there are no features in Scala
that are not built around those keywords and tokens. The keywords and
token are not more heavily overloaded than in D, on the contrary in my
subjective opinion.
So how I see things is that the language core in Scala is about 75%
smaller, faster to learn, and easier to reason about. I have to admit
that the features often are more powerful than in D. You need to
recognize concepts like contra/co/invariance, higher order functions and
kinds, and algebra that is based on terms discussed in lambda calculus
books.
I agree that a hemorrhage of keywords is of dubious value, and Walter
has been much more generous with keywords than I would have ever liked.
Assuming you're not hanging out in this group just to feel smug: what
steps do you think we could take to make D a better language than it
currently is?
Andrei
