D : Not for me anymore

[John Reimer]

On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:40:32 -0700, Bill Baxter  
<dnewsgroup at billbaxter.com> wrote:

> Knud Sørensen wrote:
>> On Sun, 15 Oct 2006 12:44:03 -0700, Walter Bright wrote:
>>
>>> Jari-Matti Mäkelä wrote:
>>>> Walter is a true compiler expert, but I think he wants to leave the
>>>> development of libraries to those who are more experienced with
>>>> different kinds of frameworks. Besides, he already has more than  
>>>> enough
>>>> work in extending the language and maintaining the compiler.
>>> What I'm mindful of is I endorsed DWT as the official D gui library,  
>>> which promptly killed it.
>>  What about the library contest I suggested long ago ?? Is that a  
>> useful idea?
>> I did never get much feedback on that idea.   
>> http://all-technology.com/eigenpolls/dwishlist/index.php?it=59
>>
>
> I worked at a small software company once where the marketing folks  
> decided to have a big contest.  They advertised it software development  
> magazines and everything.  Top prize was supposed to be like $10,000  
> cash I think.  In the end, when the deadline came, we counted up all the  
> submissions.  One... two.  That's it.  We got *two* submissions.  
> Granted, they were pretty good, but I think in the end the marketing  
> department decided to cancel the contest and gave the two entrants free  
> copies of our software instead.  I was pretty embarrassed for the whole  
> company.
>
> Anyway, this is just to say, my experience with big prize programming  
> contests for niche software has not been good.  And no matter how cool  
> it is, you have to admit D is still pretty niche.
>
> --bb


I think it's simple. While I don't see much purpose in prizes and contests  
in specific area of D development (not at this point, at least),  I do  
think it would be handy to setup donation accounts for developers similar  
to what sourceforge.net does.  I can say I wouldn't mind contributing some  
dollars to projects like bud (aka build) as a motivator.  And if there  
were a standard library development happening, I'd have no inhibitions  
there either.  Not everybody likes donating, but there are definitely D  
projects out there that are proving there worth many times over.

-JJR