One area where D has the edge

[Laeeth Isharc via Digitalmars-d]

On Monday, 26 January 2015 at 20:55:14 UTC, Wyatt wrote:
> On Monday, 26 January 2015 at 20:19:09 UTC, Laeeth Isharc wrote:
>>
>> Does Rust have the productivity of D?  And it doesn't have the 
>> maturity, as I understand it.
>
> This brings up something that's been bugging me.  D has a pitch 
> for users of a lot of crappy languages, but what do we say when 
> the competition isn't a total slouch?
>
> This exchange (names changed) is what started this train of 
> thought:
> <chum> though i don't understand what the point of D is either 
> because once you've already accepted a gc there are better 
> languages you could use
> <chum> and if you refuse to accept one, then, well, you either 
> have c++11 or you wait for rust to be usable
> <otherguy> chum: what is better than D once youre willing to 
> have managed mem?
> <chum> it's functional, but the complaint all the gamedev folks 
> have about fp langs is that their implementations are usually 
> garbage collected and they can't accept gc pauses
> <chum> otherguy: f#, ocaml, haskell
>
> Particularly against F#, I'm not sure what to say (it's a 
> pretty interesting language, even if it's kind of ugly to look 
> at and CIL-ly).  Thoughts?
>
> -Wyatt

I don't know F#.  I know what you mean, but I don't think the 
competition to D consists of crappy languages - there are some 
very smart and creative people with large resources working on 
them (putting aside the question of the tone one should adopt in 
public towards peers).

This kind of categorical thinking is a mistake.  I am not 
certain, but it strikes me that outside of realtime, the kind of 
problems one may have with the GC (or with avoiding the use of 
the gC) in D are really quite different to, say, Java, whereas 
people lump everything together.  I have no experience with 
realtime applications, so can't comment there.

It's not for me to say, but D isn't a product like toothpaste 
where you are trying to elbow aside the competition, but one 
where it needs to be the best 'D' it can be, and communicate that 
well to people and make it easy for them to take advantage of 
what it has to offer.