D hates to be dynamic linked

[Justin Johansson]

Lutger wrote:
> Justin Johansson wrote:
> 
>> Eldar Insafutdinov wrote:
>>> Steve Teale Wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:41:20 -0500, g wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I tried to get some attention for this problem again a couple of weeks
>>>> ago (see the "special treat" thread), and everyone who replied said
>>>> "yes, we really need this", but Walter does not want to go there.
>>>>
>>> Is it really true? That's a big shame. Being able to define and use
>>> plugins in a clean cross-platform way is on of the essential features of
>>> big software packages that D aims at to be used in. The solution to this
>>> problem should really be a top priority, at least I have hoped so.
>> Yes it is really true.
>>
>> You would have read of my dyna-link saga four posts above yours
>> and, reiterating, that sadly was the final show-stopper for me
>> to continue to using D.
> 
> At the risk of asking a dumb question, what is the major roadblock? Is it in 
> the GC? Does it require changing the runtime only, or is it also required to 
> make changes in the compiler (backend)?

Specifically my roadblock was the inability to create shared objects
(.so files) on Linux platform (analogous to DLLs in Windows).  This
was required for the plug-in architecture that I was targeting.