Tail pad optimization, cache friendlyness and C++ interrop

[Artur Skawina via Digitalmars-d]

On 06/20/14 23:28, Dicebot via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Thursday, 19 June 2014 at 11:12:46 UTC, Artur Skawina via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> That is fortunately not a problem for dmdfe, as boost/gpl should be
>> ok for (almost) everyone. But the cost of having to deal with another
>> license, for a bundled part, that you're never going to use and are not
>> even interested in, is there. The cost of scratching-an-itch also
>> becomes higher. Depending on person/context, these costs can be
>> prohibitive.

> I still don't understand. What impact backend license has on you? 

Let's not make this about me - while this issue has been (one of) the
reason(s) why I have never even looked at DMD in all the years, I have
never mentioned it. At least not until somebody suggested that the
problem is not a real one. :)
It's just /one/ of the issues leading to the very low amount of
contributions; eliminating this one wouldn't drastically change the
situation, it would be just a small step in the right direction.

> In other words, what is potential danger you need to be concerned about that makes potential contributions too risky? One problem I am aware of is redistribution issue which is common blocker with getting into linux distributions. But personal contributions? Can you explain it in a bit more details?

It's not about being able to contribute to DMD, it is about being able
to work on /other/ projects. If contributing to DMD carries the risk of
affecting the latter then it's simply best to avoid it; it's not a risk
worth taking, just for a few small improvements. Significant work often
starts with simple and trivial fixes; if scratching-an-itch is too costly
then major contributions suffer too. Note that whether the risk is
significant, or even real, doesn't really matter much -- it's the cost of
making the decision that matters. Just-submit-a-small-patch-to-a-boost-
-licensed-project turns into investigate-the-licensing-and-evaluate-all-
-the-potential-legal-implications. It's enough to discourage submissions
*even in the cases where there is no problem*.

artur