Idea #1 on integrating RC with GC

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

On Monday, 10 February 2014 at 23:15:35 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
> develop themselves. But as I told Walter, for better or 
> (sometimes definitely) worse, our character flaws make history 
> inside the D community.

But I am also a hard core roleplayer… so you won't know when I am 
me, and when I am pulling your leg. I assume the same about you. 
;-]

The internet is a stage. What is real, what is not real? Hard to 
tell. What is a person, what is a character? Difficult question.

> This is a typical problem. Reviewing contributions is hard and 
> thankless work. I know how we solved it at Facebook for our 
> many open-sourced projects: we created a team for it, with a 
> manager, tracking progress, the works. This is _exactly_ the 
> kind of thing that can't be done in a volunteer community.

Maybe you can make some parts modular after you refactor into D. 
Then people can take ownership of modules and social recognition 
will encourage more commitment.

I don't know the D social arena well enough to know if that works 
though.

> So I wasn't glib when I sent you to github. In a very concrete 
> sense, you'd be helping there a ton more in a fraction of the 
> time you spend posting.

But I don't want to do that when I am merely assessing D. I am 
not commited to D. Yet.

> I think D must not define itself in relation to any other 
> language.

I respect that position.

Of course, it does not help if outsiders have been told that D is 
a better C++. It kinda sticks. Because people really want that.

I am very hard trying to convince myself that D is more like 
compiled C#, which lowers my expectations, because that original 
vision of a "better C++" is very firmly stuck.

Of course, the problem with C++ is that it is used very 
differently by different people. D is appealing more to the 
high-level version of C++. It probably depends on when you first 
used C++ or what parts of C++ you are interested in.

> done and witnessed a number of such attempts, I think you're 
> exceedingly naive about what can be done with traditional 
> project management approaches in this case.

There you go ad hominem again.

I have studied online virtual worlds where people volunteer for 
worse…

But my point was more that you need to communicate a vision that 
is such that the people you want to attract don't sit on the 
fence. I am quite certain that more skilled C++ programmers would 
volunteer if they saw a vision they believed in.

So maybe they don't do more, but more hands available…

> Ola, I'm sure you mean well. I trust you will find it within 
> yourself the best way to contribute to this community.

You really need to avoid this ad hominem stuff… You see, as a 
hardcore roleplayer I could be tempted to switch over into a 
sarcastic mode. And that would not be fair to you. ;-)