dmd codegen improvements

[Bruno Medeiros via Digitalmars-d]

On 02/09/2015 19:58, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 8/29/2015 12:37 PM, Laeeth Isharc wrote:
>> In my experience you can deliver
>> everything people say they want, and then find it isn't that at all.
>
> That's so true. My favorite anecdote on that was back in the 1990's. A
> friend of mine said that what he and the world really needs was a Java
> native compiler. It'd be worth a fortune!
>
> I told him that I had that idea a while back, and had implemented one
> for Symantec. I could get him a copy that day.
>
> He changed the subject.
>
> I have many, many similar stories.
>
> I also have many complementary stories - implementing things that people
> laugh at me for doing, that turn out to be crucial. We can start with
> the laundry list of D features that C++ is rushing to adopt :-)
>

Yes, and this I think is demonstrative of a very important 
consideration: if someone says they want X (and they are not paying 
upfront for it), then it is crucial for *you* to be able to figure out 
if that person or group actually wants X or not.

If someone spends time building a product or feature that turns out 
people don't want... the failure is on that someone.


And on this aspect I think the development of D does very poorly. Often 
people clamored for a feature or change (whether people in the D 
community, or the C++ one), and Walter you went ahead and did it, 
regardless of whether it will actually increase D usage in the long run. 
You are prone to this, given your nature to please people who ask for 
things, or to prove people wrong (as you yourself admitted).

I apologize for not remembering any example at the moment, but I know 
there was quite a few, especially many years back. It usually went like 
this:

C++ community guy: "D is crap, it's not gonna be used without X"
*some time later*
Walter: "Ok, I've now implemented X in D!"
the same C++ community guy: either finds another feature or change to 
complain about (repeat), or goes silent, or goes "meh, D is still not good"
Me and other people from D community: "ok... now we have a new 
half-baked functionality in D, adding complexity for little value, and 
put here only to please people that are extremely unlikely to ever be 
using D whatever any case"...


-- 
Bruno Medeiros
https://twitter.com/brunodomedeiros