D benchmark code review

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad" <ola.fosheim.grostad+dlang at gmail.com>]

On Saturday, 14 December 2013 at 04:17:16 UTC, Manu wrote:
> It's all good, it's settled now. It's not my fault, or my 
> intent, that the most trivial point in my list of comments is 
> the one that apparently stimulated the most discussion... :/

Oh well, don't feel bad, I wrote tongue-in-cheek and needed 
motivation to de-lurk. If people can't stand opinions about 
whitespace they should get off the net. :-) In my opinion you 
would need an editor with good taste who develops the style guide 
and enforces it. That's the best way for a volunteer-like 
project, I think, because enforcing a style you don't enjoy is no 
fun so it is important that the one responsible for fixing 
code-layout LOVES the "design".

(I personally suspect that the lots-of-extra-lines styles were 
developed, not out of taste, but as a strategy to get impressive 
Lines-Of-Code-counts! Lines of code used as a measure of 
productivity by clueless managers.)

On another note, now that I am here: I find the D-forums to be 
very entertaining, lots of fun discussions comparing different 
languages. So I keep coming back. I once had great hope for D as 
a better C++, but I have kind of given up, even though I find the 
other C-family members kind of distasteful too, but their 
compilers are better (for now). I am also kind of wondering if 
Dart will replace Javascript and then a more static version of 
that language eventually will replace C++. It makes little sense 
to have all these almost-the-same imperative languages…

Regarding using the not-operator for non-not-operations: anything 
would be better than reusing operators that are commonly used to 
affect control-flow. It makes it difficult to comprehend control 
flow when you skim code you are not familiar with. "not" tends to 
be used for completely changing the flow of a program so those 
"!" are attention-seekers when trying comprehend unfamiliar code.

What makes me sit on the fence regarding D (I have used it 
actively a couple of years ago) is:

1. Not enough improvement on syntax (In some areas better than 
C++, in others worse. In regards to templates it is even worse, 
and C++ is kind of bad.)

2. No way to get rid of garbage-collection without making the 
language crippled. This is a show-stopper.

3. No high performing authoritative compiler suite. When the 
efforts are spread over 3 compilers I just don't expect any of 
them to improve to a state where it becomes excellent (like 
having excellent error-messages, analytic features, tight 
IDE-integration etc). It gives an impression of a lack of 
direction and leadership, and makes me feel like there is no hope 
of D ever to catch up. Other languages keep improving too…

So obviously, it is not the semantics that makes me a lurking 
fence-sitter. The issues that makes me sit on the fence are 
certainly in areas that could be fixed, but I don't expect it 
will be. So I stick to the forums, for now… ;-) Though I do 
really wish you the best, and will certainly use/contribute to D 
when/if it resolves the issues listed above.

Ola.