A gentle critque..

[Walter Bright]

Ben Cooley wrote:
> That's certainly a good reason.  However, it doesn't help me or any other
> programmer out in the real world which have to deal with very large quantities
> of frequently updated c and c plus plus third party libraries.
> 
> D's role right now is as an enthusiast language for closed world small scale
> projects which can be written by hand converting existing c headers.  Is this
> the ultimate intent of this language?
> 
> I would say that a "header compiler" that just compiles both C and C plus plus
> headers into a format directly useable by D, and modifications to D such that it
> can easily use foreign C plus plus object types would be all that I would need..
> along with the ability for the D compiler to produce output that could be linked
> and debugged with existing C and C plus plus compilers on linux and windows.

D, right now, *can* link with existing C and C++ compiler generated code 
on linux and windows. It can also access C++ generated code that 
conforms to "COM" programming conventions.

For an example of how D connects with C code, see the std.zlib support 
in the phobos standard library.