Linux Agora D thread

[Gary Whatmore]

retard Wrote:

> What annoys me the most in pro D articles is the author usually tries to 
> prove (in a naive way) that despite all the deficiencies the language and 
> tool chain bla blah blah

This guy has nothing better to do? Sheesh..

> For instance, I'm starting the implementation of a 64-bit systems/
> application programming project *now*. The implementation phase will last 
> N months (assume optimistic waterfall process model here). How many weeks/
> months must the N at least be to make D a feasible option?

D has everything you need and rest are available via C bindings. You can start your product now. Use DMD for 32-bit code, LDC/GDC for 64-bit. Problem solved. The N is zero. Even hello world is usually simpler in D.

> A typical lead developer / project manager has to make decisions based on 
> some assumptions. E.g.
> 
> Platform      Implementation  Developer  Performance  Platform
>               Time            Market     Index        Risk factor
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> C/x64 Linux   12 months       good       100          medium
> C++/x64 Linux 10 months       ok         110          high
> Java/x64 JVM  8 months        excellent  80           low
> C#/Windows 64 7 months        very good  85           low
> Python/Linux  4-5 months      very good  30           low
> D             12+ months?     very bad   80-115 ?     very high

The numbers for D are

5-6 months (almost as good as python), very good (lots of unemployed students reading this newsgroup), 90-150 (D was #1 in the language shootout but the guy got jealous). Risks are very low because everyone knows C and D is almost compatible with C if you can't handle object oriented meta programming code.

> Why I think the D platform's risk is so high is because the author 
> constantly refuses to give ANY estimates on feature schedules. There's no 
> up-to-date roadmap anywhere. The bugzilla voting system doesn't work. 
> Lots of production ready core functionality is missing (for example how 
> long has d2 distribution had a commercial quality xml framework?)

64-bit DMD, world fastest stdlib (Phobos 2), other libraries, D3, world domination --->

> For example gcc has had 64-bit C/C++ support quite long. But it took 
> several years to stabilize. The implementation of a 64-bit X-ray machine 
> firmware in D cannot begin one week after 64-bit DMD is announced.

We don't need X-ray machines. There is a lot of work replacing all C/C++ apps with D code. You know, solitaire.exe, notepad.exe, things like that. Much better when done in D.

 - G.W.