Replying to a couple of the comments here
"I don't know if it's a different expectation or a different
mindset or something else."
I'd like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable, but Yes, I expect
installing/configuring to be easy and quick, so I can get to the
actual programming. I expect solid debugging capabilities, full
IDE support, autocomplete, and 64-bit windows libraries. It is
just some of the things that I am used to with Visual C++.
"Better than C++" is my motivation to evaluate D, and to me that
goes beyond just the language and standard library.
If I, as a new user, don't have a solid first impression, I'd
have no expectation that the rest of the D ecosystem is polished,
and I would return to C++
"even when we do have IDE support (e.g. VisualD), it never seems
to be enough for some folks."
I tried VisualD, but the fact that it didn't use dub underneath
made me think "that's not the way people are supposed to use D".
That is why I started the VSCode path- that felt more in the
spirit of the D ecosystem.
I admit I didn't consider evaluating DLangIDE earlier. I am used
to Visual Studio, so that was my first choice. If I have to learn
a second editor I want one that is known to work with many
languages and lots of plugin support, so I picked VS Code.
