On Wednesday, 27 December 2017 at 18:23:37 UTC, Dan Partelly
wrote:
On Wednesday, 27 December 2017 at 16:46:18 UTC, Russel Winder
wrote:
It is all about differentiation. Forget competing against C,
C++, and
Rust. D is the C++ inspired language with GC that isn't Go.
So what I hear is: if D wants a future embrace one personality
only. Given current state of affairs, it should compete against
the like of Java, C# and Eiffel. Embrace GC and forget anything
like better C and competing against zero cost abstraction
languages. For this to happen D must focus all its energy on
implementation of a second to none GC.
This of course , has both sense and sensibility, but given that
D has been unable to commit to one personality in it's
life-spawn, how likely is to happen ?
Walter, what says you ? Where do you actually want to go with D
? What you and D foundation wants, not Russel or I or whatever
else ?
'Competition is for losers', according to Peter Thiel. It's
completely the wrong mindset to succeed in a free society. What
you're supposed to do is create a monopoly that you earn and keep
earning every day. Economic quasi-rent, or pure profit, is the
reward for noticing ways to better organise resources to serve
customers needs in a way that others have overlooked. (See the
work of Israel Kirzner and Schumpeter).
D shouldn't compete against anything any more than it has tried
to compete in the past. The way to success is to listen to
people who like what you are doing anyway and would like you to
develop along the path of development that already exists and
maybe are willing to encourage that in some way. [Of course
stealing useful ideas that fit what you are doing is always good,
patent and IP law permitting].
If you do that, it becomes a ridiculous question to ask 'how are
you differentiated from other languages; what is your edge?'
because it's obvious to anyone with eyes and the willingness to
study a bit what that is.
In my view, this is also good career advice I have taken myself
and that I have found personally to be profitable, as well as the
right way for a language to develop.
And it's what Walter has done anyway based on his long experience
in flourishing as a one-man band in a market where Microsoft -
with its very large resources - was then the dominant player.
People also continue to think and write as if the D Foundation
has this inexhaustible fund of resources (pecuniary and people)
that it can command to work on whatever Andrei and Walter think
best.
It's open source! It doesn't work like that.
If you want people to work on something, write a proof of concept
and talk about it. Talking to the aether about what people ought
to be doing will be less effective than finding one guy who
agrees with you and working on the project together. And if not
working on it yourself, then organising a fund and making an
initial contribution towards a prize for someone who will.
And if one isn't willing either to work on something oneself, or
to contribute financially towards its development, just how
likely is it you will persuade somebody else to do the work in a
community of highly intelligent, spirited, and independent-minded
people?
