Help!

[Mike Parker]

On Tuesday, 27 November 2012 at 21:23:12 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 11/28/2012 5:25 AM, Max Samukha wrote:
>> Please stop repeating that "will break lots of code" mantra. D 
>> user base
>> is very small and it doesn't grow *because* issues like the one
>> discussed do not get fixed. When they are fixed people may 
>> start using
>> the language. And *then* you would have to worry about backward
>> compatibility. Look at the recent Manu's complaints and see 
>> what people
>> who would really use the language have wanted from it for 
>> years.
>
> I understand what you're saying, but the counterpoint is we 
> lost half the D community when D2 broke D1 code. We still have 
> at least one major D1 user that still finds it impractical to 
> upgrade to D2.

That was more than a breaking change. That was a massive paradigm 
shift. All the drama going on back then was rooted more in 
philosophical differences and the Phobos/Tango divide, than 
changes to the language. What's being discussed here is breakage 
on a much smaller scale.

I've always said that it's the little things in aggregate that 
make D such a wonderful language to work with. But the flipside 
of that is the little annoyances in aggregate can make it 
frustrating to work with. New users coming to a language often 
have little patience. IMO, their encountering these little 
annoyances before the good stuff takes hold is a far more 
pressing issue than a few minor breaking changes.

I've no idea what sort of commercial interests are using D in 
production, but I'd still confidently make the bet that a few 
breaking changes now (for issues that people find frustrating) 
would do more good than harm in the long run. Especially if they 
are introduced gradually and with time to understand their 
ramifications.