Microsoft now giving away VS 2013

[Joakim via Digitalmars-d]

On Friday, 14 November 2014 at 14:20:00 UTC, Chad Joan wrote:
> We really should have had a toolchain compiling D into working 
> (release quality) Android/iOS executables about 3-5 years ago.

I agree.  Well, to a large extent: the first Android smartphone 
was only released 6 years ago, would've been a bit early to jump 
in the year after.  I picked it up last year because nobody was 
working on it, after years of people asking.

> This would have allowed D to scoop up a HUGE share of 
> deployment in a market that was very new and welcoming of 
> experimentation.

I don't know, I think D really has a chance to do well on mobile, 
but have other alternative languages, ie not C/C++/java, done 
_that_ well on Android?  I know the Rust guys are now working on 
it, but while languages like FreePascal are on there, I have not 
heard of any big success story.

> It seems like there have been a few people enthusiastically 
> working on this, but with little support from the broader 
> community.  I really wish this were a higher development 
> priority and more actively encouraged a long time ago.

I have been a bit surprised by this.  It definitely seems many 
are x86/desktop/server-centric and seemingly ignoring the great 
opportunity for native languages and furious growth in mobile.