D Development Paradigm

[Jesse Phillips]

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 05:52:03 +0900, Bill Baxter wrote:

> Craig Black wrote:
>> Listening to Walter argue with everyone about const again I had to
>> laugh. Does anyone else notice this pattern?
>> 
>> 1) People propose an idea/complaint about a language feature 2) Walter
>> makes a strong case for the way D does it 3) People press the point but
>> Walter is stubborn 4) People get tired of arguing
>> 5) Many months or years pass
>> 6) For unknown reasons Walter changes his mind and makes the proposed
>> change
>> 
>> I remember a time when Walter disliked the idea of adding templates to
>> D.  I also remember a time when Walter argued furiously against adding
>> const. More recently he defended at length the 3-keyword const
>> implementation.  He always argues his points so adamantly that whenever
>> he changes his mind it seems like a religious conversion. :)
> 
> I think that's precisely his job.  Nobody wants to use a language that's
> changing its grammar on a weekly basis.  So his job is to keep it as
> stable as possible and not change it without overwhelmingly convincing
> evidence that a change would be an overall win.
> 
> --bb

I agree here, Walter has to be pessimistic about changes, otherwise 
features would be added remove continually because the demographic has 
change a little. When people want something an are declined they must 
look at there reasons for wanting it an come up with good arguments for 
it. This also means that they have to explain how they wish to use it and 
where else it would be useful. Even if Walter saw the idea as good 
resisting it until he gets this information will make for a better design 
later.

I would like to point out string, which was very much detested, but it is 
finally here. However string is not just an alias to char[] and it is not 
the String class that was wanted, but instead an alias to a const(char[]) 
something useful in the face of const I suppose.