OOP, faster data layouts, compilers

[Kai Meyer]

On 04/22/2011 02:55 AM, Paulo Pinto wrote:
> Many thanks for the links, they provide very nice discussions.
>
> Specially the link below, that you can follow from your first link,
> http://c0de517e.blogspot.com/2011/04/2011-current-and-future-programming.html
>
> But in what concerns game development, D2 might already be too late.
>
> I know a bit of it, since a live a bit on that part of the universe.
>
> Due to XNA(Windows and XBox 360), Mono/Unity, and now WP7, many game studios
> have started to move their tooling into C#. And some of them are nowadays
> even using
> it for the server side code.
>
> Java used to have a foot there, specially due to the J2ME game development,
> with a small
> push thanks to Android. Which decreased since Google made the NDK available.
>
> If one day Microsoft really lets C# free, the same way AT&T  somehow did
> with C and C++, then C#
> might actually be the next C++, at least in what game development is
> concerned.
>
> And the dependency on a JIT environment is an implementation issue. The
> Bartok compiler in Singularity
> compiles to native code, and Mono also provides a similar option.
>
> So who knows?
>
> --
> Paulo
>
>
>

I don't think C# is the next C++; it's impossible for C# to be what 
C/C++ is. There is a purpose and a place for Interpreted languages like 
C# and Java, just like there is for C/C++. What language do you think 
the interpreters for Java and C# are written in? (Hint: It's not Java or 
C#.) I also don't think that the core of Unity (or any decent game 
engine) is written in an interpreted language either, which basically 
means the guts are likely written in either C or C++. The point being 
made is that Systems Programming Languages like C/C++ and D are picked 
for their execution speed, and Interpreted Languages are picked for 
their ease of programming (or development speed). Since D is picked for 
execution speed, we should seriously consider every opportunity to 
improve in that arena. The OP wasn't just for the game developers, but 
for game framework developers as well.