Standard Library Concerns (Phobos / Tango)

[Tim Burrell]

Hey all,

It seems that even though Phobos is open source, it's difficult for
people to contribute to.  Patch submissions aren't being accepted as
readily as they should be, and bugs remain even months after having a
fix submitted by users.

Not to mention that it's confusing for new users to have to deal with
two standard libraries.  I think it would be a really good thing for the
language as a whole if there were only one standard library.

My personal opinion is that Walter should let go of Phobos and adopt
Tango as the official standard library.  I know there are people out
there that prefer the Phobos API over Tango's, but I have a feeling that
if Walter asked the Tango people to maintain the Tangobos base as the
official standard library for D they would be okay with that.

It would be a win-win situation for everyone, including Walter.  His
time would get to be spent more on D itself, as he would likely only
need to oversee the standard library in terms of input regarding the API
and patchset accepts.

The community would gain a huge win because there would only be one
unified standard library.

Phobos users would still be able to use the Phobos API but would gain
the benefits of using an API that they feel they can contribute to, and
that has a proven track record of being responsive to fixing bugs.
They'd also gain the ability to use the odd Tango class when desired.

And Tango users wouldn't have to deal with using a non-standard library
as the basis for their app, plus the ability to use the odd bit of the
Phobos API would be nice now and again as well.

I really feel strongly that a move toward a single standard library is
the right thing to do for D.  There's very few cons to such a move and a
great many pros.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the matter?

Tim.