A bit off topic, yet still relevant given the ongoing attempts
for D to be usable on the games industry.
At this year's GDC Unity had a few talks of the new subsystems
being transitioning from internal engine code in C++ into upper
layers written in C#.
For that purpose they are introducing a new compiler, based on
LLVM and targeted to a subset of C# features, they are calling it
High Performace C#.
Keypoints of the subset:
- Only structs are used, no classes;
- .NET collections are replaced by native collections that manage
their own memory
- No code that would trigger GC is allowed
- Compiler is aware of Unity features and is able to explore
SIMD, by doing auto-vectorization, and transparently transform
structs fields into optimal representations
They plan to take advantage of the new C# 7.x ref type features
after integrating the new compiler infrastructure.
"Unity at GDC - C# Sharp to Machine Code"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF6kcNS6U80
Also relevant,
"Job System & Entity Component System"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwnb9Clh2Is
"A Data Oriented Approach to Using Component Systems"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p65Yt20pw0g
Some might remember Mike Acton's talk at CppCon about
data-oriented programming, he is one of the developers leading
this effort.
https://www.mcvuk.com/development/exclusive-unity-takes-a-principled-step-into-triple-a-performance-at-gdc
