On 26 January 2012 00:55, Adam Wilson <flybo...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:44:09 -0800, Manu <turkey...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 26 January 2012 00:37, Adam Wilson <flybo...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:28:46 -0800, Manu <turkey...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> On 25 January 2012 23:59, Adam Wilson <flybo...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:35:38 -0800, Manu <turkey...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> >>>>> On 25 January 2012 21:47, bls <bizp...@orange.fr> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> On 01/25/2012 07:03 AM, Manu wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>> This is fairly interesting. MS have extended their C++ compiler >>>>>>> >>>>>>> significantly for Windows8 with a bunch of non-standard stuff. >>>>>>>> FINALLY implement garbage collection, ref counting, properties, >>>>>>>> delegates, events, generics, etc... >>>>>>>> If other compilers adopt this tech, D loses some advantages. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> But you still have to fight with ifndef ,forward declaration, and a >>>>>>>> >>>>>>> template syntax against common sense. Even if you paint shit yellow >>>>>>> it's >>>>>>> not necessarily gold. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> True, but I think this will mitigate a lot of the motivation Windows >>>>>>> >>>>>> devs >>>>>> have to seek another language if they're not developing cross platform >>>>>> apps. >>>>>> >>>>>> Sadly, since WinRT requires using these language extensions to >>>>>> interface >>>>>> with the new windows runtime, you won't be able to write a Windows8 >>>>>> app >>>>>> in >>>>>> D. >>>>>> Interestingly though, D supports almost everything they've added to >>>>>> C++. I >>>>>> wonder if it would be possible to do extern(Windows8) to produce a >>>>>> compatible ABI for linking with MS C++ apps? >>>>>> >>>>>> The most interesting features are 'ref new' and 'gcnew', which makes >>>>>> me >>>>>> wonder, since Windows8 has an OS garbage collector, would it be at all >>>>>> possible to have D use the Windows8 GC? I'd prefer this to using D's >>>>>> own >>>>>> GC >>>>>> if it would be supported, and obviously this would be a requirement >>>>>> if D >>>>>> was going to interact with WinRT properly. >>>>>> Also, WinRT uses 'ref new' to allocate ref counted (effectively COM to >>>>>> my >>>>>> understanding) objects. I think I read somewhere that D already has >>>>>> extern(COM) no? I wonder if Windows8 ref type linkage is already >>>>>> technically supported in D? >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> There is no Win8GC, it's all ref counted. WinRT is COM with extras >>>>> and as >>>>> such should be accessible to D. It would need some extra glue code over >>>>> what we have now ... like the IInspectable interface. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Really? So what's 'gcnew' for? >>>> >>>> >>> That's for targeting the CLR (.NET) so it doesn't conflict with >>> new/delete >>> in regular C++. It goes all the way back to the first C++/CLI in Visual >>> Studio 2005. >>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-****us/library/te3ecsc8.aspx<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-**us/library/te3ecsc8.aspx> >>> <http**://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/**library/te3ecsc8.aspx<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/te3ecsc8.aspx> >>> > >>> >> >> >> So there is a GC... It just happens to be the .net GC. Is that a problem? >> Obviously it's accessible in C++ code. Can you use it to allocate C++ >> objects, or is it exclusively for some sort of interaction with .net? >> If the rest of the platform is using it... >> > > It's exclusively for the .NET Framework and requires the .NET Framework to > be installed and loaded to run. It's the .NET Runtime, and as such, it > would be VERY unwise to base anything D on it.
.NET will be a requirement on all Win8 machines. You didn't answer though, can you use the .NET GC to allocate C++ objects to use throughout your native program? Or is gcnew strictly for interfacing C++ with .NET, like C++/CLI?
