stability

[Don Clugston]

Edward Diener wrote:
> Janice Caron wrote:
>> On 24/02/2008, Derek Parnell <derek at psych.ward> wrote:
>>>  So I would imagine that before another D compiler is written, a
>>>  specification is created that forms the benchmark to measure what is a
>>>  conforming D compiler.
>>
>> Specifications can have bugs in them too.
>>
>> That's why specifications have continual addenda and/or new versions.
>> Without that, conforming implementations would be forced to implement
>> bugs.
>>
>> The /real/ definition of a bug is probably "doesn't do what the
>> designer intended it to do". That's certainly true when /I/ write code
>> - if it doesn't do what I want, it's a bug. /Sometimes/ what I want it
>> to do is comply with a spec, in which case non-compliance is a bug,
>> but other times I'm creating something new, but in either case, a bug
>> is "it doesn't do what I intended".
>>
>> In the case of D, I'm happy that Walter is not constrained to a
>> possibly buggy spec.
> 
> I heavily disagree with this attitude.
> 
> Unless users of a computer language have a specification which defines 
> that language for them and which they can use to know whether or not 
> what they are doing is correct or not, that language can not be successful.
> 
> It is of no interest to end users what Walter intended, as opposed to 
> what is written as the specification.

Well, it is 'interesting', as long as Walter regularly issues updates (it's 
useful to know if a particular annoying behaviour is likely to be fixed in a 
release available in three days time). But it's very inefficient, and as you 
say, it impairs adoption of the language.
> 
> I would strongly urge Walter and the active members of the D community 
> to ensure that the specification for versions 1 and 2 of D always remain 
> as relevant as possible and that the specifications be available and 
> downloadable from a single centralized place.

Definitely. Note that in the past week, a great leap forward happened in this 
regard: the source for the spec is now available on dsource. This means that 
bugs and ambiguities in the spec can be fixed by people other than Walter.
We can expect the quality of the spec to improve more rapidly now.