Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:44:38 +0000, dsimcha wrote: >> I think having a SafeD environemnt on .NET/JVM might be an interesting >> exercise. However, the language doesn't have many interesting new >> features to justify its existence on either platform. > > Don't D's compile-time introspection and generic programming abilities > count for something? They're the biggest reason I use D over C# or > Java, and AFAIK D is the most mainstream language with a comparable > level of compile time metaprogramming ability.
Those are quite expressive features. However, without the close to metal aspect, D is too close to C# in my opinion. The metaprogramming things surely help when cleaning up useless boilerplate, but they aren't enough. Ruby, Python, Clojure, and F# all have more powerful features on top of a modern virtual machine and people seem to favor (J)Ruby and Python these days.