the point of selective importing

Lars Ivar Igesund larsivar at igesund.net
Tue Jul 11 03:09:15 PDT 2006


Walter Bright wrote:

> John Reimer wrote:
>> Several dedicated people here are making these import suggestions based
>> on lots
>> of time and experience putting D to use in large projects.  It becomes
>> more evident, in that context, why D is NOT the same as Java, C#, C++,
>> and why it shouldn't be the same, even in the context of namespaces. It's
>> a complete mistake to try to cast D in the same mold as those languages,
>> whatever Walter
>> keeps saying.  D maintains a different aura and seems to invite a new
>> style, all evidence of a healthy evolution of a language.
> 
> It's easy to demonstrate the utility of feature X if it has a proven
> track record in other languages. If it does not exist in those other
> languages, the case for X must have a significantly higher bar to get
> over.
> 
> It isn't just me that has to be convinced. D, in order to broaden its
> audience, must appear to have a solid collection of useful capabilities.
> If people get the impression that it's a grab bag of not-so-useful
> features, it will fail.

You couldn't be more right. I have been looking into the possibilities for a
startup using D as a core technology. This is based on seeing the potential
of D, using D and talking to other people using D. However, I am becoming
doubtful that this is something I will even try to go through with. If it
is something D need, then it is that the continued shaping of the language
use the actual experience starting to be contained in the D community.

Walter, you seem unable to listen to (or understand) the issues met when
developing libraries in D (which is a different thing from porting an
application from C++), we are talking 2-3 years of solid experience writing
libraries in D, Ant, Kris and others, they _know_ what the problems are,
which I belive is much more important knowledge in this respect, than what
was done in C++ many years ago. C++ experience don't help much when
developing with D, D experience do. You don't want language committees,
then for the sake of those actually using D, LISTEN TO THEM! I am not
willing to flog a dead horse.

-- 
Lars Ivar Igesund
blog at http://larsivi.net
DSource & #D: larsivi



More information about the Digitalmars-d mailing list