[off-topic] Sony releases PS Vita SDK

Alex Rønne Petersen xtzgzorex at gmail.com
Fri Apr 20 00:07:24 PDT 2012


On 20-04-2012 08:43, Paulo Pinto wrote:
> Well, C# can also be real systems programming language, see Singularity.

No, this is actually a common misconception.

Singularity does *not* use plain C#. It uses Sing#, which is an 
extension of Spec# adding message-passing, compile-time reflection, and 
safe manual memory management features. Spec# is a version of C# heavily 
based on design-by-contract (I'd argue its DbC is far superior to D's in 
fact).

Plain C# out of the box is not useful for systems-level programming, and 
especially not in a kernel.

> And native code compilers are also available (Bartok, Mono AOT, NGEN).
>
> D names itself a system programming language, but I am yet to see any OS
> coded on it. Without system programming examples, it becomes just another
> application level language.

https://github.com/xomboverlord/xomb

>
> On the other hand I confess this is a very hard task, as most of systems
> programming
> languages that manage to exist as such (PL/I, Ada, C, C++, Mac Pascal),
> did so because
> there was an OS vendor that made use of them.
>
> Now that I mention this, does anyone know if D is being used as research
> language in any operating system department in some university? I remember
> there were some posts about it long time ago.
>
> What I see going for D in terms of language features:
>
> - scope
> - compile time metaprogramming
> - mixin as a kind of macro mechanism
> - inline assembler (this one might be a bit debatable)
> - delegation via subtyping
> - all available implementations compile straight to native code
>
> --
> Paulo
>
>
> "Nick Sabalausky" wrote in message news:jmpphn$20s9$1 at digitalmars.com...
>
> "Paulo Pinto" <pjmlp at progtools.org> wrote in message
> news:jmpl39$1oa1$1 at digitalmars.com...
>> Hi,
>>
>> just wanted to announce that Sony has finally made the new Playstation
>> Vita SDK available, as we were discussing some months ago.
>>
>> http://www.playstation.com/pss/index_e.html
>>
>> The gamming industry seems to be slowing moving to C#. Would we still
>> be able to convince developers to move to D instead?
>>
>
> Yes. I suspect that the movement to C# is somewhat of a compromise due to
> the fact that C/C++ has been the *only* real systems language usable for
> most gaming systems. Obviously, something better than C++ is needed, and
> thanks to the moronic VM/interpreted obsessions from the last decade or so
> that rendered most new languages impotent, there was no real alternative to
> C++. So, I suspect, that's why they made the compromise of going with C#.
>
> But D is *real* systems language, unlike C#. And frankly, it beats the snot
> out of C#. I'm not just saying that subjectively as D fan: Five years ago
> (if not less) I considered C# and D tied as my favorite languages. But the
> more I used both, the more I got fed up with C#'s dumb limitations and MS's
> disinterest in addressing them, and the more I liked D.
>
> If D can't be made to attract game devs away from C++/C#, then I'll loose
> what little faith I have left in mainstream games development.
>


-- 
- Alex


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