Generality creep

ag0aep6g anonymous at example.com
Thu Mar 28 18:48:27 UTC 2019


On 28.03.19 19:30, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> We should do what C, C++, Java, C# and many other languages do - leave 
> past mistakes in maintenance mode and move on with new stuff. It's like 
> blockchain - once done, it can't be undone. You do a new one. C has 
> about three ways of converting numbers to strings and back. C++ added a 
> couple, poorly designed. Then they added a better one. And don't get me 
> started about I/O (two ways of doing it in C, and another one in C++ 
> that nobody in their right mind would use). Same with Java pre- and 
> post-generics interfaces for comparing objects. It's just that if 
> something is bad they define a better one and move on.
> 
> We have a language with virtually no global scope - a versioning 
> engineer's dream. Yet we are coy to tap into that power. Instead, we 
> wring hands over the breakages that would happen if we change std.json. 
> The time is ripe for std.v2, which would do the right things and support 
> simple migration.

I'm not against that at all, but I'm not convinced that you can make it 
happen quickly. Remember that this sub-thread started with a mention of 
my pull request that was open for a year, sitting idle most of the time.

So until new Phobos materializes some more, I'd appreciate if we could 
fix issue 18657 one way or the other in old Phobos.


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