Current state of "D as a better C" (Windows)?

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 1/25/14 6:32 PM, Frank Bauer wrote:
>> There aren't that many language features that depend on a GC, and the
>> ones that do can be disabled with a custom runtime.
>
> I don't want to miss out on a single language feature of D. Where is
> that GC-free runtime?

GC is a language feature of D.

As funny as that may seem (as a comeback timed almost too well) this has 
interesting truth to it. Some convenience features of D require GC to 
work, and that's as cut and dried as it gets. Without them, D would need 
to sacrifice some features or complicate the language or concentrate 
focus on that aspect alone (and I suspect Rust is guilty of at least 
some of the above).

You can't have all of D without GC for the simple reason that GC is 
convenient and simplifies things, and often such things are desirable. 
Of course, reducing within reason, modularizing, and compartmentalizing 
the need/use of GC is a goal worth working toward. But all that requires 
reason and measure.

>> druntime/Phobos are designed for a mixed allocation strategy, where
>> tracing GC is one of the strategies used. Many Phobos types and
>> functions do not rely on a GC.
>
> In theory (which gives me hope), not in practice. Where is that GC-free
> Phobos?
>
>> Java and C# do not function well without GC at all (disregarding the
>> effort you'd have to go through to get a Java or C# implementation
>> without GC).
>>
>> D definitely *does*.
>
> Again, this gives me hope. Please Walter, Andrei: search all the forums
> for "I want D with opt-in GC" (fuzzy search, that is) and count matches.

We believe the clamor is overblown. The patterns in which D produces 
garbage (litter, for the most part) are very different from those in 
languages that don't offer a choice. Focusing on library functions that 
produce a few garbage-collected strings when the bulk of the load is 
elsewhere - that's penny wise and pound foolish.

That said, it's good to have control and rein in over how and where 
litter is produced. We see this as an ongoing focus.


Andrei