Standard Library Concerns (Phobos / Tango)

[Ameer Armaly]

"Tim Burrell" <tim at timburrell.net> wrote in message 
news:fochd0$30te$1 at digitalmars.com...
> 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?
>
If we can get a systemm for accepting submitions to Phobos going, what if we 
made Tango a sort of expansion pack on top of it? I.E. Phobos addresses all 
the basic stuff, and Tango ditches all its standard library-ish code and 
becomes the "extended library" if you will. The way I see it the standard 
library should be fairly comprehensive without going in to actual nitches; 
that ought to be left to whatever expansion pack we put together. Thoughts?

It's good to be back by the way; getting settled at college can take a while 
with classes and the like.
> Tim.