Random points from a D n00b CTO

[uri via Digitalmars-d]

On Monday, 14 July 2014 at 03:55:02 UTC, Vic wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm a CTO at a start up and interested in porting our Java 
> project to D. Some points, I have been lurking on D for years, 
> went to my first D conf recently. Also I was one of top 20 
> people to join Java Struts, and that grew to 3million plus end 
> users so I have some 'cred'. Hope this helps:
>
> - Confusing forum. First listed forum on 'D' is not for D 
> users, but it's called D! It is in fact for D commiters. This 
> causes frustration for both users and commiters. (yes there is 
> 'learn D' but it's 4th down. Commiters forum should be slightly 
> hidden and user questions should not be answered in commuters 
> but politely asked to post in the proper forum.).

I agree. It doesn't bother me personally, but I think the
discussions about lang design etc. should be under "D Programming
Language - Development".

A new user might be put off by all the heated discussion about
the language design and get the impression D is still in flux.

>
> - I was *very* disappointed that using base library locks you 
> into GC vs ref. counting.
> Separate, I like how Objective C has NSObject for GC 
> purpose(I'd love a framework that is just ref counting), but 
> there should be dual libs and base should not be GC.

This topic was bashed to death. There were compelling arguments
from both sides, but in the end no one pushing for ARC could
produce evidence that it was better than GC.

Currently there's a big push to remove hidden GC allocs from
Phobos, starting with @nogc.

std.allocators is just around the corner as well, which will
provide a solid framework to build better allocation strategies.

>
> - D is/has become complex. metaprograming, generics, macros, 
> etc. This is a culture issue, very hard to fix cultural issues 
> w/o losing most commiters. Just a fast system lang w/o headers, 
> 'boost' and such. All this other stuff can be 3rd party eco 
> system and should be pushed out from D proper into 
> implementations and add ons.
>

This is why I use D. After many years in C++ I am not fond of
templates but in D they are almost transparent and so simple to
use. They provide amazing code reuse and CTFE for almost zero
additional complexity over run-time code.

> - Dub rocks.

That is does, although I still use CMake :)

>
> - Very little 'user' outreach. Meetups such as 'learn D'  (set 
> up editor w/ DUB, and write some vibe.d DNS client/server in 4 
> lessons). Or how to use a c .so lib.
>
> So hth. FYI I plan to hire 3+ 'D lang' programmers (users, not 
> commuters) to rewrite the Java project in Dallas and/or San 
> Jose (CA) over the next few months (Feel free to ping me 
> @puppetMaster3, ideal candidate is 'prolific' and career 
> programmer)
>
> Cheers, Vic

Good luck! Thankfully I can use D at work now, if I couldn't you
would have my CV within the hour :-)

Cheers,
uri