I have a plan.. I really DO

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On 7/6/18 11:19 AM, Ecstatic Coder wrote:
> On Friday, 6 July 2018 at 14:52:46 UTC, 12345swordy wrote:
>> On Friday, 6 July 2018 at 14:11:05 UTC, Ecstatic Coder wrote:
>>>
>>> Just one silly question.
>>>
>>> Can the following "naive" D code trigger a garbage collection stall ?
>>>
>>> score.Text = point_count.to!string() ~ " POINTS";
>>>
>> The correct answer is: I don't know, as I don't know what 
>> "point_count" is in the first place, as it never been defined.
>>
> 
> Actually you answer was right even if the point count was not stored as 
> an integer ;)

The real answer is what rikki says.

Note that what point_count is is irrelevant, the concatenation operator 
is going to trigger a GC allocation.

We could go further and say "Well, you haven't defined `to` or `string`" 
and then we can say we have no idea what this means at all!

> 
> For C++, the answer is : never.

Of course, the answer in C++ is that it won't compile, this is D code! ;)

And yes, you can have @nogc code in D, and it's less pleasant than 
normal D code, but still WAY more pleasant that most C++ code. So will 
people put up with this who want to just write games? Given the current 
state of the landscape, probably not.

At some point, someone is going to make a fantastic game engine in D, 
and then we will have a ballgame. Maybe it happens after D gets better 
support for reference counting, maybe before. Nothing inherent in D 
makes it impossible or unlikely. But people aren't going to switch "just 
because", there needs to be a compelling reason that causes someone to 
champion it.

-Steve