Rant after trying Rust a bit

[Dicebot via Digitalmars-d]

On Wednesday, 22 July 2015 at 21:03:52 UTC, simendsjo wrote:
>> Macros are utterly horrible and pretty much unusable outside
>> of advanced library internals.
>
> Not sure what you are referencing here. Macros expand to code. 
> If
> you compare this to string mixins, they are a lot easier for 
> tool
> writers, but a lot less powerful.

Compared to string mixins they require much much more effort to 
learn and reason about. In our meetup group no one was able to 
figure out meaning of any small sample macro without detailed 
explanation. Compared to string mixins they are much harder to 
abuse because of inherent hygiene but also much harder to start 
using, while in D the concept comes quick and naturally but 
requires discipline to get used in maintainable fashion.

And they definitely don't feel any easier for library writers 
from my personal experience. More maintainable - yes, but not 
easier at all.

>> Recently I attended local Rust meetup for curious newcomers - 
>> it was very interesting to observe reaction of unbiased devs 
>> not familiar with D at all. General reaction was "this is 
>> awesome interesting language that I would never use for any 
>> production system unless I am crazy or can throw away money 
>> like crazy". Because, well, productivity.
>
> I'm having some problems interpreting this. This is people in
> a Rust meetup - in other words, early adopters. And they thing
> D is crazy "becuse productivity"? I don't understand what you
> mean.

Not early adopters, more like curious group learning new stuff 
together. And "crazy" was about Rust and how impractical it is 
for real business needs they have. No one has ever mentioned D 
there.