On Tuesday, 22 September 2015 at 18:17:42 UTC, Maxim Fomin wrote:
Two examples. I am aware of only one case when Walter and Andrei agreed with community.
Well, but the community doesn't agree with itself either ;^) But Walter did add @nogc and changed his view on GC being a total non-issue, so obviously forum discussions have an effect on the decision-making process over time.
So, my point is that D except communication channel is pretty much the same as standardized languages with respect to changing language.
I think the process changes a lot when you are working with an actual language spec for several years and get experimental implementations in compilers a long time before release. Add also the number of qualified eyeballs looking at proposals... I don't think the C++ designers have made many serious mistakes in the last few iterations (although it could happen again in C++17 ;^).
When the spec is the compiler, then you get the unfortunate effect that things that are easy to do go in, and things that are hard to do are rejected.
Anyway, some of these things are discussed in Stroustrup's keynote:
https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines/blob/master/talks/Stroustrup%20-%20CppCon%202015%20keynote.pdf
