It is the year 2020: why should I use / learn D?

[NoMoreBugs]

On Saturday, 17 November 2018 at 02:07:45 UTC, Laeeth Isharc 
wrote:
>
> And to return to an old point.  It's much better to focus on 
> people that like what you are doing and already using your 
> product than those who say "if only you would do X, D would be 
> huge".

Given D's very small user base, that's probably not the mindset 
you want the foundation to be in ;-)

That mindset, will ensure your small user base never grows, and 
will likely get smaller and smaller.

Even the C++ Committee cannot risk being in that mindset - not 
anymore anyway.

Same is true for the C# and Java gatekeepers.

To grow the user base, you need to listen and respond to *their* 
needs - ask any streamer ;-)

> That's the nature of the innovator's dilemma and also if one is 
> to be persuasive then it's helpful to remember that talk is 
> cheap, whereas making a closely reasoned argument accompanied 
> by skin in the game - now that is much more persuasive.

As long as I use D, I have 'skin in the game'.

When I stop using D, I'll have no interest in trying to voice my 
opinion about how it can better serve my needs.

And you don't need to be sending pull requests to have skin in 
the game.

Also, you seem to be saying that D is more of an incubation 
language, for creative ideas?

But, it seems to want to strut itself on the world stage as a 
genuine competitor to industrial strength languages.

Can it be both? (I'd argue, that it cannot be both, and that it 
needs to choose - soon).

This duality of purpose, is just confusing - and in my opinion, 
is holding back the language.

A language with only 2 gatekeepers makes sense for a language 
that wants to be an incubation language for creative ideas - even 
more so when its for the creative ideas of those 2 gatekeepers.

But a language that wants to compete against industrial strength 
languages better listen to its users.

I know of no widely used industrial strength language that has 
only 2 gatekeepers. Because how can only 2 people be 
representative of its vast number of users? It's not possible.