Pathing in the D ecosystem is generally broken (at least on windows)

[Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d]

On Saturday, 26 September 2015 at 10:14:38 UTC, Jacob Carlborg 
wrote:
> On 2015-09-26 11:50, Manu via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>
>> *anything* that is perceived as friction is written off
>> almost immediately.
>
> Yet they still use C++ :)

C++ has its issues, but it's still a great language - especially 
in comparison to many other languages. And even if the programmer 
in question really doesn't like C++ that much, they're at least 
familiar with it and used to dealing with its downsides. Using a 
new language takes them completely outside their comfort zone and 
requires them to deal with a different set of pros and cons, and 
it requires them to learn a new a language, which meany 
programmers just don't want to deal with. So, if a new language 
seems to have problems that they're current one doesn't (even if 
it supposedly has other aspects which are way better), many folks 
simply aren't going to be interested. It's a risk to try 
something new, and it takes time. And many folks simply don't 
want to do that. You tend get similar problems when trying to get 
someone to use any program that replaces something that they're 
currently using (trying to get someone to switch to LibreOffice 
or to Linux would be good examples of that).

Unfortunately, with the kinds of folks that we're talking about 
here, you need to get pretty much _everything_ right in order to 
not run into problems like Manu is talking about. It tends to 
take almost nothing for someone to decide that trying something 
out isn't worth it if they're not actively looking for something 
better. So, while we have a lot to gain by improving the 
out-of-the-box user experience for D, it's also a fight that we 
can't really ever win. There's always going to be _something_ 
which makes it seem like too much friction to many folks. But if 
we can do better, then at least that will make it so that fewer 
people react so negatively, even if many (or even most) still 
will.

I don't think that there's any question that we have an easier 
time of convincing someone who's actually interested in finding 
something better and actually giving D a shot than someone who's 
simply trying it out and dismiss it if they can. And it sounds 
like Manu is dealing a lot with the latter type of folks.

- Jonathan M Davis