Has D failed? ( unpopular opinion but I think yes )

[H. S. Teoh]

On Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 03:25:05PM +0000, Nierjerson via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Friday, 12 April 2019 at 14:30:53 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
[...]
> > Personally, I couldn't care less about popularity. After what I've
> > seen in the industry over the past 2-3 decades, I've become very
> > cynical about popularity.  What I *do* care for is a language with
> > strong technical merit. D has that, to some extent -- I'm not going
> > to pretend D is perfect either, as I do find a lot to be desired in
> > it.  But it's much better than the alternatives I've tried, so for
> > the time being, it's my language of choice.
> > 
> > But obviously, YMMV.
> > 
> 
> And this is the problem. Those hard core users like yourself that
> pretend that popularity doesn't matter. What are you going to do in
> 10-15 years(depending on how old you are) when Walter is dead(isn't he
> like 70 now?) or simply cares even less about D and moves on to dying?

There are enough of us around to keep it going without Walter, and that
number is growing.  It may not be growing as fast as you might want, but
it's growing.


> Popularity is what grows something.  You might not care about it, but
> without it D is definitely dead and it is just a matter of time.

Bold statement for a language that has a good number of companies using
it in production, with a small group of dedicated contributors.  Yeah,
it may be no C++ megalith, but honestly? I can live with that. In fact,
I like it.  Popularity usually also equates to lowering your standards
to the lowest common denominator.  I've seen enough of that in my career
to be extremely cynical about it.


[...]
> Once the popularity of D = 0 D is dead. That is a fact. Do you want D
> dead?  or do you like playing risky games? If you think D is so great
> then why would you not want it to be more popular? If D is better then
> C++ in every regard then why would you not want everyone using D
> instead of C++?
[...]

Ah, the good old strawman argument. I never said I don't *want* D to be
popular.  I said that popularity is irrelevant *to me*.  I want D to
grow *by technical merit*, not than by pandering to whatever fashion
trend the masses are clamoring for today that will inevitably change
again tomorrow. Popularity is not a reliable measure of technical merit.


> See, it is not that D itself is a bad language, it is that the whole
> atmosphere surrounding it, how it is managed, is the problem. Some
> things are done well but others poorly, eventually those things that
> are neglected will catch up because the community seems to care not
> one bit about them.  The cracks are getting bigger and bigger, I'm
> sorry you can't see them.
[...]

To be honest, I've seriously thought about forking D on several
occasions.  I haven't gone through with it yet, for many reasons.  But
if push comes to shove, I'm ready to take it on, and I'm pretty certain
that I'm not alone.


T

-- 
People say I'm arrogant, and I'm proud of it.