Focus

[Rob T]

On Friday, 18 January 2013 at 20:21:47 UTC, bearophile wrote:
> Also, I don't agree a lot about the "fog of war" theory by 
> Walter.

I must have missed that one, what's it about?

> I think a development plan should be discussed, written down, 
> and then followed (and dynamically fixed, when necessary). 
> Building a new system language has a high risk of failure, but 
> there's no need to also shot D in the feet on purpose.
>

Yes, a plan is sorely lacking. Also the language specification 
can be much  better managed. For example, there's no clear plan 
for it, no clear revision history, discussions for improvements 
are made but then get lost or forgotten, etc. If it were better 
managed, many advantages become apparent, such as being able to 
link a particular release of the compiler to a specific revision 
of the language that the compiler supports, but that's just one 
benefit. The limited resources can be more focused on fixing 
specific parts of the compiler because that specific area was 
made a priority. What's the priority right now? I don't know, and 
that's not sending a confidence inspiring message to the people 
who are thinking about taking a risk and using D.

On the positive side, we have seen a recent improvement with the 
rolling out of a defined development and release process. Some of 
the details are still being sorted out, but it is a;ready huge 
improvement and may help kick start more of the same thing. We 
just need to keep working towards expanding the process to 
include other areas of D development.

--rt