Paulo Pinto:
Thank you for your answer, but I think you have missed most
subtleties of my points.
I doubt Ada programmers would appreciate any other language,
given the type of high security applications Ada is used in.
I was not referring to just Ada programmers, but to programs that
people *maybe* want to write in Ada.
Programs are not classified in just two groups as "normal" and
"ultra high integrity". There is a continuum between the quicker
Perl script and the Shuttle flight control software.
Even C and C++ have to endure strict regulations to be used in
such environments, for example the Auto Industry MISRA standard.
D already contains some rules of those subsets of C and C++, and
some of those rules are not needed in D because D has other
features that avoid their need.
D is not like MISRA C but it's generally safer than regular C. A
stricter subset of D too can be invented.
So, I think D is fit for intermediate projects where you don't
want to afford the costs of the proved ADA-SPARK subset, but you
want something a bit safer than plain full C/C++ (this is also
the main design purpose of Rust language).
If future people will appreciate to use D for such purposes, then
it's worth tuning a bit D/Phobos for their needs too.
Bye,
bearophile
