D vs C++11

[Nick Sabalausky]

On Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:46:17 +0100
"Erèbe" <erebe at erebe.eu> wrote:
> 
> All of you name a lot of missing features in C++11, while I 
> completely agree upon that makes D cool, don't you fear a turtle 
> effect if D only focus on features ?
> I explain myself, C++ is a well supported language and come with 
> a lot of tools which could help/improve your developpement. In 
> the decision of taking D xor C++, developper could think "Hey I 
> already know C++ and how to work with it (aka tools), let just 
> stick with it and wait for the new C++11 features coming for 
> free". In that situation, C++11's no effort (or little to learn 
> new additions) seem more rewarding than learning D, so why try ?
> 

That is a problem we face, but it's true of any up-and-coming language,
and it's not really specific to "focus on features".

I'd say the biggest selling points to C++ users would be much better
productivity, and much better safety without sacrificing efficiency. In
other words, C++'s two biggest known weak points.


> Is there a point in the D roadmap where we will see "Okay, D has 
> enough features, let add some support to the language now" ? 

We've *already* been at that point there for some time. Language
features are no longer added without strong justification. And the
primary focuses are on toolchain and fleshing out the std lib.


> C(++) had man (K in vim) and gdb, pascal his own ide, dynamic 
> languages have their interpreters, Java eclipse, what has D ?
> 

Such things are typically cross-language these days (well, except for
interpreters). What what D has is "All that cross-language stuff". As
examples: a lot of people use gdb with D, D syntax highlighting is in
damn near every editor on the planet (and definitely all scintilla-based
ones), and there are D plugins for all the major IDEs: Eclipse, VisualD
and Mono-Develop.

That said, D does have DustMite which isn't an editor anything like
that, but it is damn awesome:
https://github.com/CyberShadow/DustMite/wiki


> Nearly no support in vim (my editor of choice), a Plugin for 
> eclipse wich force you to stick with an older version,

Hmm, I guess I wouldn't have known. I can't use vi, and I don't use
Eclipse (too bloated).

> a Visual studio plugin where you need to buy a liscence in order to
> have the IDE.

I don't know where you got that, but that's that remotely true. It
works fine with the free VS shell, even says so on the VisualD
homepage, and I've done it that way myself.

> The only viable choice for me is the plugin for 
> monodevelop which is really great but no debugger (assert is 
> enough for now).
> 

Lots of people here use vim and swear by it. And again, gdb for
debugging. (But I'm a printf-debugging fan myself. Or writeln in D's
case ;) )

> Support should not be a top priority for the D-core now that the 
> language is well featured ? Something coherent with what already 
> exist (dmd) ?

Ideally, yes, but they have other big things to work on too, and there's
only so much manpower to go around. Especially since very few of the
people who really want or expect big IDE features have been willing to
join up and lend a hand.