Lost a new commercial user this week :(

[Manu via Digitalmars-d]

On 20 December 2014 at 19:59, Dicebot via Digitalmars-d
<digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, 20 December 2014 at 07:26:30 UTC, Manu via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> I get so frustrated by the apparent majority in this forum who seem to
>> think 'most' programmers are the type who would even read or post on a
>> forum like this. Or read a programming book! They must surely be the
>> overwhelming minority.
>
>
> I am well-aware that people who actually have a passion for programming are
> tiny minority. Though many still read programming books because that adds
> some weight for career advancement requests.
>
> But you call to support interests of those programmers at cost of interests
> of existing users - something absolutely impractical at current language
> development stage. Trying to explain why this expectation is not reasonable
> and not just is the least hostile reaction I can give.
>
> Whatever Andrei says, there is no benefit in blindly pumping user base if
> you don't have resources to support it. I also remember him saying "want
> million users, build as if you had million users". Well, currently we don't
> truly build even for thousand users.
>
> You have been stressing those cases for several years now. Have you actually
> contributed anything to DMD to improve debug symbol generation seeing how
> this is important to you?

Many bug reports and case studies, and often, a persistent voice for
minority issues that don't get enough attention. My time spent arguing
in this forum is substantial, and as annoying as it may seem, I think
if I didn't invest that time, there are things in the past 5-6 years
that would have moved in a different direction, and the language would
be less attractive to me and my industry as a result.

No, I'm not a compiler dev, and I feel like you're trying to discredit
me because I'm not.
I don't want to be a compiler dev. I want to *use* D to make my life
and work easier for my numerous existing projects and commercial
activity.
No other language community has ever demanded I contribute to the
compiler to be eligible to have my case considered relevant.

If I contributed code to DMD, I know it will become my life, and that
means I'm stepping away from my existing interests and areas of
development. I'm not interested in doing that.
Surely you can understand that my desire to *use* D as a tool is not
at odds with my desire to continue to work in the fields that I prefer
to work in?


> I keep asking you simple question you avoid answering - who personally
> should work to address your concerns? Those are all legit concerns and I
> doubt anyone would willingly prefer to keep things as they are. But who will
> do it if apparently you are the person who needs it most and you don't want
> to do it?

Any of the existing dev's that particularly care about the long-term
success of the language and the health of the ecosystem?
Perhaps new dev's will be attracted by making the ecosystem inclusive
of their work and development practice. That tends to be the way open
source works no?

The answer you're looking for is obviously 'I don't know', but
regardless, the things need to be on the list, and the list would
ideally be prioritised according to usage by the user base.
I report on usage relevant to my industry, and I feel I am quite an
effective advocate. I pioneered D in a major company, converted many
individuals, talk about it among my development community endlessly,
often give local demonstrations. I've raised a lot of interest, and I
already contribute more time than I can afford.

I'm glad you work on the compiler, the community needs people like you
more than anyone... although I'm not sure about your attitude. Right
now, I'm finding it quite corrosive.