SDC needs you

[via Digitalmars-d]

On Thursday, 16 April 2015 at 08:12:59 UTC, Joakim wrote:
> for a way to contribute to find it?  I agree that it's unlikely 
> that someone will saunter in and learn the codebase and provide 
> good fixes in their spare time, which is why I remain skeptical 
> of the open source approach taken by the D community.

Yet again, people do learn parts of the code base and create 
their own version of it... Like ketmar and I, and probably others 
too.

To some people the main road block is a total disregard for CS as 
a profession in the D community. The language design discussions 
that moves outside C++ are like watching people building their 
own house without reading up on the topic then telling the 
carpenter that they are completely clueless for pointing out some 
real issues that will actually make the house rot. Like putting 
the damp sealing on the outside of the wall rather than on the 
inside, clearly you should put it where it rains? (Nope, the 
humidity is coming from inside the house in winter).

Too much NiH and ignorance wears out people with a CS background 
and they leave, which incidentally are the people you need the 
most for designing novel language features! There's a big 
difference between implementing a spec and designing it. Stick to 
Simula/Java and you are safe. Stick to C++ and you get some of 
their problems. Invent your own without spending time on PLT and 
you'll never get done.

Still, D is better off than the BitC community, which have very 
educated discussions. So it is safe to say that to pull it off 
you also have to be stubborn even when you are wrong (otherwise 
you'll just redesign over and over and over). A hard balance to 
get right. C++ is getting there (after being wrong). I think D 
can too.