Why I Use D

[Graham St Jack]

On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:02:42 +0100, Extrawurst wrote:

> What do i like ?
> 
> * dynamic arrays, slicing
> * cleaner OOP (no multiple class inheritance) * syntax goodies :
> foreach,foreach-range,the array/struct-literals,auto,loop-labels,nested
> comments * and i like the transitive const (D2.0) !!! * delegates
> * powerful and yet much more transparent template programming (meta
> porgramming in D in general)
> 
> What i dislike ?
> 
> * two standard libraries, i think this is a real problem (keeps new
> users away, people i talk about D with consider it too unmature if there
> is such a gap between the stdlib of the reference compiler and the
> community-generated lib, and they simply wont give it a try cause of
> much stuff missing in phobos)
> * IDE - We really need full code-completion/suggestion/outlining/goto
> support and all these goodies to convince larger scale teams to switch
> to D (i know Descent is on a good way...) * some already "ancient"
> compiler Bugs
> 
> Thank you Walter for the great effort and the wonderful language that
> you are dedicating to this thankful but always critical community!
> 
> 
> ~Stephan

This pretty much sums it up for me too.

I think D is fantastic, and I am close to being able to use it for 
project work in my day job. The team I work in is also keen - we are sick 
and tired of C++'s stupidities and ugliness. All that is holding us back 
is the standard litany of GUI, 64-bit, waiting just a bit longer for 2.x 
to mature and the Tango/Phobos split - and they won't hold us back much 
longer.

In preparation I have ported quite a bit of our library code and have had 
wonderful experience, ending up with about 1/3 as much code, and what is 
left is far easier to understand and easier on the eye.