Is D really community driven?

Mike Parker aldacron71 at yahoo.com
Mon Jul 23 16:52:46 PDT 2007


downs wrote:
> The D homepage makes the claim that D "[...] is not governed by a 
> corporate agenda or any overarching theory of programming. The needs and 
> contributions of the D programming community form the direction it goes."
> Recent discussions on the newsgroup regarding assert with Object 
> references that might be null (no, segfault is _not_ a valid form of 
> error checking ^^), CbD parameters or the older question of "!in" come 
> to mind as cases where the D community, as represented by this forum, 
> pretty much voted as a majority to introduce a certain behavior and 
> Walter decided differently, out of reasons that many posters would, and 
> did, disagree with.
> 
> So, the question is: is D really ultimately community driven? I have no 
> real problem with it being a singular effort by Walter, but then he 
> shouldn't claim that "the needs and contributions of the D programming 
> community" et cetera. Unless he's saying he knows the needs of the 
> community better than the community itself :)
>  --downs

'Community-driven' is too strong of a term. Any language designed by 
community would likely not result in something most people would want to 
use. 'Community-influenced' is a lot closer to the mark. The passage you 
quote from the homepage can certainly be interpreted the wrong way, 
though. The point is that voices from the community can, and do, affect 
the direction D takes because it isn't designed by committee or to meet 
corporate goals. Walter's ears are always open to great ideas from 
D-ites, but the final word will always rest with him.



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