if(arr) now a warning

[ketmar via Digitalmars-d]

On Fri, 01 May 2015 02:55:00 -0700, Walter Bright wrote:

> Imagine you find some cool D library, download it, and find it doesn't
> compile.
> How many of you are going to fix it? Or are you just going to chuck it
> to /dev/null?
> 
> How many users have we lost because of this?

zero. if that library is SO old, it is unmaintained anyway, so there will 
be no not only new features, but no bugfixes too. anyone wanting to use 
such library in new code is insane.

> This really blows. And things like that isnan => isNaN really has GOT TO
> STOP.

sed -r 's/\bisnan\b/isNaN/'

> We need to be working on things that MATTER.

language consistency IS matter. i wouldn't even try to explain newcomer 
what `if (arr)` really means, why it means that, and why in the name of 
hell he should care about `arr.ptr`, while in all other places it doesn't 
matter. and i can tell you how many users you lost due to THIS: at least 
ten. ten real users vs ??? imaginary users.

> What happens with every
> Reddit post about D? No matter the topic, it always becomes about D not
> being usable without the GC.

why should anyone care about what is going on on reddit? ah, i know. it's 
'cause Random Reddit Poster, who never wrote something bigger than 
"hello, world" in D is first-class citizen, and people who using D every 
day to write all kind of programs are second-class citizens.

> Why am I the only one working on that?

maybe 'cause other people who can devote their time to this doesn't see 
random reddit mumbling as a serious motivation?

> I'm willing to break existing code for a large benefit. Not a small one.

having consistent language is a large benefit. but it's not immediate one.


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