On Saturday, 10 February 2018 at 12:44:14 UTC, rjframe wrote:
On Fri, 09 Feb 2018 22:36:19 +0000, Ralph Doncaster wrote:
Frankly, I think it is doomed to be a niche-use language.
While many more things were done right compared to C++, too
many things were done wrong and there doesn't seem to be
interest in breaking backward compatibility to excise them
from D.
Yes.
If the current "let's get C++ programmers to like us" stuff
continues, some of these problems will have to be fixed. I'm
expecting C++20 to be a nice language for new projects, where
you can ignore a lot of the blech (though not quite enough of
it), and moving to C++20 will be easier than moving to D. The
ROI just won't be there for most people (for many, it doesn't
seem to be there today...).
I also agree. One of the prime benefits of a language with a
smaller community is that you can make it _better_ *faster*,
breaking backcompat more easily and more often, and getting a
better language in the process. After all, if its users wanted
something slow to evolve, they'd be using one of the
industry-accepted behemoths.
I'm not sure that being a niche language is a bad thing; if we
just say, "this is D; if you like it come and use it, come help
make it better, but if it doesn't help you -- that's OK. There
are other languages too" -- we may have more freedom to explore
what D can do best. I've done compile- time stuff in D I would
never have even considered attempting with C++ - and I haven't
done nearly as much as others here. I don't think we've really
explored the fullness of the language yet, and I wonder if
that's only going to be possible if we quit comparing ourselves
so much to C++.
I don't think D is designed to be a niche language. It's a
general purpose language, open source with multiple
implementations, solid engineering, and even has good-looking
syntax. It's not niche at all, it just doesn't have hoards of
users. D is well-positioned to be hugely popular, but I think to
succeed its leadership needs to be willing to fix things they
want to fix and not worry about breaking backcompat.
