D future ...

[Laeeth Isharc via Digitalmars-d]

On Wednesday, 28 December 2016 at 03:21:03 UTC, Jerry wrote:
> On Tuesday, 27 December 2016 at 16:36:10 UTC, Laeeth Isharc 
> wrote:
>> On Monday, 19 December 2016 at 23:02:59 UTC, Benjiro wrote:
>> So if you want to improve the language and its ecosystem, the 
>> best way is to contribute pull requests or $$$s - the 
>> Foundation now accepts individual donations, and it's also 
>> open to corporate sponsorship, I believe.
>>
>>> Editor support:
>>
>> Sublime text and sometimes vim work well enough for me, though 
>> these things are very personal.  For the others, have you 
>> contributed anything - time or money in making them better?  
>> If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.  And contribution 
>> of either has a higher value than just the thing itself, 
>> because it also tends to energise the project - look at the 
>> frustration Basil experienced regarding his IDE project.  It's 
>> good to have high standards, but one should have some 
>> appreciation also for the gift that people make of their time, 
>> work, and energy in ways that don't always lead to the 
>> gratitude that one might expect.
>
> There's only so much time and money someone can give.

True.  I really have very little time myself, but I was more 
annoyed by seeing the docs wrong and took the twenty minutes or 
so it took to fix them (slow, because I wasn't used to the 
process).  My point is it's a continuum - not a question either 
of donating $500k and all of one's time or zero.

> It isn't that appealing when virtually no other language out 
> there suffers from this problem cause they have an actual 
> market behind them.

One picks one's poison and lives with the consequences.  D's 
advantage isn't shiny marketing, documentation, and polish.  Yet 
its user base seems to be growing and people are building their 
businesses around it.  I wonder why that is.

In my experience it doesn't do much good to complain about a 
problem that is well understood unless one is going to do 
something about it too.  And if one isn't contributing code, 
energy or resources in some other way that will at least make a 
dent in the problem, one shouldn't be so surprised if one's own 
preferences don't perfectly coincide with the preferences of 
those who are.

> Those markets fuel money being poured into the tools of the 
> lanugage. It doesn't really matter how many users you have, it 
> depends on the demographic of those users. If they are all 
> students still in school, then you haven't really created a 
> market.

People are using D to do real work, and there's more money 
supporting D than ever before.  It might not yet be gazillions, 
but give it time.

>> Rome wasn't built in a year.  Great things are achieved by 
>> taking baby steps, compounded over time.  And if one does what 
>> little one can, others are inspired by it.  Enthusiasm and a 
>> constructive attitude are infectious in my experience.
>
> D isn't a year old though. If the steps you take are too small, 
> you can also end up being left behind.

Tis possible, but I would happily bet against your view.