D1 to be discontinued on December 31, 2012

[Jacob Carlborg]

On 2011-12-15 20:41, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 12/15/2011 9:49 AM, Robert Clipsham wrote:
>> * Do it all in one go, and DO NOT GET DISTRACTED. The moment you start
>> trying to
>> clean up code as well as finish porting it you introduce lots of issues
>
> I've done many projects that translated code from one language to
> another, some were pretty large. The One Big Most Important Rule is:
>
>
> !!!! DO NOT REFACTOR/ENHANCE/IMPROVE/FIX/CLEANUP THE CODE WHILE
> TRANSLATING !!!!
>
>
> I know how tempting it is. It's incredibly tempting. It's a huge mistake.
>
> The method that works is to turn your brain off, and simply translate.
> Strive for a 1:1 correspondence between the original code and the
> translated code. Do not divert from this until after your translation is
> done, and it behaves identically to the original.
>
> The reason is that the translated version inevitably will not behave
> like the original. A lot of things will be broken. If you did a 1:1
> translation, you can instrument both, find where the translation
> diverges, and fix it in a fairly quick and straightforward manner. If
> you changed the way it is organized or works, then you have no idea if
> it is a translation error or your changes broke it, and you have a much,
> much harder time fixing it.

Having ported the Mac OS X version of SWT from Java to D (and a couple 
of other code bases) I completely agree with everything above. You just 
have to turn your mind off and work like a machine when porting. It's 
extremely tempting do some small fixes here and there but restrain 
yourself, you'll thank yourself in the end.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg