Using D

[Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d]

Thanks for posting this. You're right that it is easy to lose perspective.

I agree that the GC phobia is way, WAY, overblown for practical programming. For 
example, Warp uses the GC, but only for things like initialization, where perf 
doesn't matter, and for permanent data structures. It doesn't use it on the fast 
path, and so Warp keeps the convenience and safety of GC without the perf hit.

This was not hard to do.

I understand that Sociomantic does something similar to good effect.

GC phobia is a convenient excuse for people to not use D, people who may have 
different actual reasons that they don't express for various reasons or may not 
even realize.

For example, in the 80's, a friend of mine talked with a C++ programmer who 
fervently and passionately argued that compiler speed was the most important 
attribute. My friend says no, compile speed is at the bottom of the list of what 
the programmer care about. Shocked, the programmer asked WTF was he talking 
about? My friend said "You use Microsoft C++, which is the slowest compiler by a 
factor of 4. What you actually care about is branding, not speed." And the 
programmer eventually admitted he was right.

But we still need an answer to the people who believe that GC is the touch of 
death, that the GC is a troll hiding under a bridge that will pop out at any 
moment and destroy their program.