System programming in D (Was: The God Language)

[bearophile]

Manu:

> I'm not referring to vector OPERATIONS. I only refer to the creation of a
> type to identify these registers...

Please, try to step back a bit and look at this problem from a bit more distance. D has vector operations, and so far they have received only a tiny amount of love. Are you able to find some ways to solve some of your problems using a hypothetical much better implementation of D vector operations? Please, think about the possibilities of this syntax.

Think about future CPU evolution with SIMD registers 128, then 256, then 512, then 1024 bits long. In theory a good compiler is able to use them with no changes in the D code that uses vector operations.

Intrinsics are an additive change, adding them later is possible. But I think fixing the syntax of vector ops is more important. I have some bug reports in Bugzilla about vector ops that are sleeping there since two years or so, and they are not about implementation performance.

I think the good Hara will be able to implement those syntax fixes in a matter of just one day or very few days if a consensus is reached about what actually is to be fixed in D vector ops syntax.

Instead of discussing about *adding* something (register intrinsics) I suggest to discuss about what to fix about the *already present* vector op syntax. This is not a request to just you Manu, but to this whole newsgroup.

Bye,
bearophile