Ch-ch-changes

[Ben Davis]

Seems like as good a time as any to say how awesome I think D is, and 
how much the world needs it! Where I work, we have a monstrosity of a 
project using all of Java, C++ and Lua, with all three interoperating in 
all directions. We've been asked to write all new code in C++ for 
reasons of portability. Having used Java extensively and D a little, I. 
Cannot. Stand. The. Pain. Of. Need for header files, lack of automatic 
memory initialisation, lack of decent IDE support because the language 
is just that bad... So while they're right about Java not being 
portable, I'm holding out and continuing to write in Java anyway. :)

So I absolutely want D to grow and get the support it needs to be able 
to replace C++, and the sooner the better! Go D! :)

(Normally I'd worry how many people I just offended, but probably not 
here :D)

On 25/09/2012 23:10, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Hello all,
>
>
> There's quite a few changes that we're very excited about, that I'd love
> to share to the extent possible.
>
> First, we have decided to extend commit rights to Daniel Murphy and
> Martin Nowak, two heavyweight dmd contributors better known under their
> noms de plume: yebblies and dawgfoto, respectively. Please join me in
> congratulating them for this token of appreciation for their talent and
> hard work.
>
> We want to move dmd forward faster, and we're encouraging committers to
> be more aggressive about reviewing and merging patches. Language changes
> will still have to get through Scylla and Charybdis (that's Walter and
> yours truly), but bug fixes and other non-controversial work can be
> safely parallelized.
>
> Here's a small draft to guide contributors to the compiler proper:
> http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?Contributing_To_The_D_Compiler.
> It's mostly authored by Don, and we should all add to it sections and
> topics that we consider relevant. At a later point we'll link to the
> document from the website, or integrate it there.
>
> We also want to formalize and automate our processes, including building
> the compiler and its libraries, testing it all, contributing, website,
> and so on. We believe that's a prerequisite to handle (and indeed
> condition) the projected growth of the language. To that end, we'll try
> to define and use a build and release procedure. There's been talk about
> a git workflow; if anyone wants to volunteer creating a detailed
> document describing the steps done, that would be awesome.
>
> Last but not least, we're in talks with a professional conference
> organizer about setting up a D conference. We're looking at some quite
> interesting approaches, but one invariant is that community
> participation and drive is key. We'll get back to you as details firm
> up; for now, lightly hash the months of April and May with a pencil.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andrei
>
> P.S. Speaking only for myself: there's been robust community growth and
> increase in participation in the past twelve months. It's also clear to
> me that although the resources we have now are fine for today's user
> base, we need to scale well in advance to what we project. By my
> estimates the community size is in the five digits now. To go 1-2 orders
> of magnitude higher, I estimate that continuing to do what we do today
> is far from enough, so we'll need to do some radical changes. Some may
> be risky, and some may be painful. But the as the guy in "Die Hard 2"
> said: no guts, no glory. Let's do this together.