Vision document for H1 2018

[Laeeth Isharc]

On Sunday, 11 March 2018 at 16:15:22 UTC, rumbu wrote:
> On Sunday, 11 March 2018 at 14:37:28 UTC, bachmeier wrote:
>> And this clarifies the source of your confusion. The D 
>> programming language is an open source project, not a 
>> for-profit company. D is not the language you're looking for.
>
> There are 3 years since C# is also open source project. Last 
> week 72 pull requests form 24 contributors were merged on 
> ~master. And this is only for Roslyn (the C# compiler).
>
> The difference (at least for me) is that contributing to C# is 
> a no-brainer. Contributing to D needs an advanced degree in 
> computer science. Using the information on the D wiki didn't 
> helped me until now to successfully compile and test a fresh 
> copy of dmd or phobos.

Funnily enough, becoming a significant contributor to the 
ecosystem - compiler or Phobos - demonstrably does not require 
even a complete graduation from high school or any industrial 
programming experience.  I know of what I speak, but I don't say 
who as it's not for me to say.

I was in Munich over new year and I asked someone else who has 
been a star contributor how he got involved.  It was really easy 
for him to start contributing, so he did.  But different people 
find different things easy.

You don't need to have subsystem for Linux to use bash.  Just the 
standard git client for Windows is enough.

I agree the Windows experience could be easier upfront.  Still, 
it's better than it used to be and next year it will be better 
again.

You can't really compare the C# ecosystem to the D ecosystem 
because they are organised around different principles.  Yes, the 
pain is upfront with D, and it's not for everyone.  However on 
the basis of rational calculation the pain in learning something 
new is a small part of the total cost of the technology choice 
and for some people by far not the most relevant question.

And it's an advantage in hiring because the D community filters 
for people who have a tolerance for discomfort upfront.

It would be wonderful to be able to wave a wand and make all of 
life's little frustrations disappear.  But in my experience, 
that's not what is possible - one picks from the choices 
available and the new ones one thinks up.  People have a tendency 
to think that leadership has more power to just change things 
then is actually the case.

I'm going to be building standard developer images from scratch 
programmatically.  Transform froma Windows  ISO into  a VM 
image.Maybe I could open source those scripts and then it's 
easier to get to the bottom of any install and build problems and 
one can replicate difficulties.