Lib change leads to larger executables

[John Reimer]

< SNIP good post from Kris >

After reading this, it began to dawn on me what has become one of the huge
obstacles for D.

Tango represents one the largest contributions to the D world.  It
may be considered the first large commercial grade library to make it's
presence here.  It's an opportunity to prove "that D has the right stuff."

But there's a traitor in our midst, and that traitor resides in the d
tool chain, no less: the withered grip of optlink -- decades old,
astonishly speedy, tried and true, vain and boastful -- stays the progress
of D in an absurd way. We're led to believe that we need nothing better for
a modern language that steadily pushes into new territory and tests new
ideas. And yet we are ultimately held hostage by this very tool. 

Does no one see the imbalance, the inconsistancy of all this? A powerful
language like D has worked so hard to ease the pains of C++ users, to
separate us from the stench of C++ clutter, by implementing a more
palatable grammar. And yet despite all this, we are forsaken. Has the
imagination and concern for progress vanished? Isn't the toolchain also
one of the most critical aspects of acceptance of a language?  Why should
anyone adopt a powerful and clean language when the tools just drag it
deeper into the sewer.  What benefit is a new language with old tools?
Cutting corners for the sake of efficiency does D no good.  Make it all
good, language and tools, and the users will clamour for it.

optlink may just be the bane for D acceptance. And Tango gets the pitiful
opportunity of demonstrating why D is NOT ready for prime-time in the
commercial realm: the DM support tools it relies on are bogged down in
the past, reflecting D's lopsided existance on yet another level: a strong
language relying on a fragile, outdated, and poorly fit tool set.

-JJR