Why do some attributes start with '@' while others done't?

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad via Digitalmars-d]

On Thursday, 21 January 2016 at 23:48:14 UTC, tsbockman wrote:
> It wouldn't be too bad, as such things go. But it also serves 
> little practical purpose; why break people's code for purely 
> aesthetic reasons?

1. Because it isn't purely aesthetic, it is also a question of 
usability.

2. Because very little code has been written in D.

3. Because D stands no chance of widespread adoption without 
fixing the usability issues.

4. Because you can have two parsers in the same compiler, one for 
legacy source files and one for contemporary code.

The only code that will break is code that relies on string 
mixins, which is a horrible idea anyway.

But D should fix all the semantic issues first. Unfortunately 
there is no focus on this, only on adding new features.

IMHO: D is a dying language until there is a focus on bringing 
both coherent semantics and syntax to the language. It is not 
like adding C++ linkage without bringing semantics closer to C++ 
will be a saviour.

There is too much focus on having a wide range of 70% solutions 
with marginal support.