On C/C++ undefined behaviours

[retard]

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:08:41 -0500, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:

> On 08/22/2010 03:31 PM, retard wrote:
>> I'm just asking, why software like this should be written in buggy D if
>> production ready Java already executes fast enough? You must desire
>> absolute hard-core super mega performance to justify the use of D.
> 
> Assuming the question is not tendentious: The decision of choosing a
> language has quite a few more ingredients than speed of generated code
> and quality of implementation.

It's really not intentionally tendentious although I often have that kind 
of tone. We used to have a desperate need for systems programming 
languages in gamedev mostly because of the efficiency concerns. Some 
320x200x8bit VGA game would have had 0.1 FPS on 80486 / Python!

Now, given that we're not developing any AAA titles anyway, the major VM 
languages such as C# and Java are actually good enough. No more dangerous 
unsafe memory operations (pointer arithmetic, segfaults etc.). Those 
languages come with mature gamedev frameworks and the performance is 
orders of magnitude better than one could hope. E.g. XNA 4.0 and Unity3D 
3.0 are very competitive despite some backwards compatibility problems. 
You don't even write much code anymore, it's just few mouse clicks here 
and there. I feel the network effect is against D here.