Sealed classes - would you want them in D?

Jonathan M Davis newsgroup.d at jmdavisprog.com
Wed May 16 10:24:02 UTC 2018


On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 05:43:58 KingJoffrey via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Wednesday, 16 May 2018 at 04:25:40 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> > I think that really what you want is something that's geared
> > more towards teaching the language. The ways that the language
> > spec needs to be improved really revolve around making it a
> > proper spec, which means making it far more precise, not making
> > it more amenable to folks reading it in order to learn the
> > language. But unfortunately, what we have right now is kind of
> > in the middle. It's not precise enough to really be a proper
> > spec, and it's generally terse enough that it's harder to use
> > it as a learning resource (though it usually has the necessary
> > information in it).
> >
> > - Jonathan M Davis
>
> Also, having a C++ like spec, written by the elite, for the
> elite, and then everyone else has to wait until some kind person
> explains the spec, is really not a great model.
>
> It's equivalent to the elitist view of trickle down economics -
> which is not working in my country.

A C++-like spec is exactly what a language specification should be. It's
intended for folks like compiler writers so that they know the exact rules
of the language in excruciating detail so that every implementation can
match in the ways that they need to match (as well as making it so that the
compiler writer knows where they have leeway). D's spec is very poor in that
regard, largely because writing specs is not one of Walter Bright's
strengths (something that he has freely admitted on several occasions).
However, Andrei has made it a priority to improve D's spec so that it is
detailed in the way that the C++ spec is. So, we should see movement towards
having a spec more like what C++ has.

Part of the problem with D's spec is that it's basically both trying to be a
specification for the language and be a way to explain the language to the
typical programmer, and those aren't really compatible goals. We really need
to have anything intended to teach the language be separate from the spec,
but historically, the main resource that we've had is the spec. Fortunately
however, the number of books that we have about D has been increasing, and
for many programmers, those are going to be better tools for learning the
language.

- Jonathan M Davis



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