Automated source translation of C++ to D

[Joakim via Digitalmars-d]

On Thursday, 21 August 2014 at 21:06:09 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 8/21/2014 10:57 AM, Joakim wrote:
>> Given tools like libclang, how hard do you think it'd be to 
>> translate most of
>> actual C++ to D?
>
> I'd say the possibility of that is about zero. Heck, we can't 
> even do it 100% for C.
>
> The trouble is, D is not a perfect superset of C++, not even 
> close:
>
> 1. multiple inheritance
> 2. SFINAE
> 3. Koenig lookup
> 4. tail mutability
> 5. overloading rules
> 6. operator overloading rules
> 7. fwd reference issues
> 8. macros (it's depressing how much modern C++ practice still 
> heavily depends on the preprocessor)
>
> Does that really matter? In my not-so-humble experience, C++ 
> programmers often, far too often, find some odd corner case in 
> the language and build an entire store on it. I personally find 
> this baffling, but it happens with depressing regularity.
>
> (In contrast, the C++ style used in DMD is very conservative 
> and tends to run right down the middle of the road of C++, 
> avoiding anything clever and corners and weird emergent 
> behavior. This is the only reason why DDMD has even a prayer of 
> working.)
OK, you would know better than anyone, thanks for the considered 
answer.