Generality creep

[Nicholas Wilson]

On Sunday, 31 March 2019 at 00:18:29 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
> Not to say that arguably the very best of my work is to be 
> found in D, many miles away from what I could ever do for C++. 
> But even not counting that: with me being a common part of the 
> inequation, I can be simplified away.

That would assume that your output (not input) to the two are 
equal and more importantly separable form the outputs of others. 
The second one is definitely not true.

> Which leads to the most puzzling question: why have the 
> outcomes across the C++ and D communities have been so 
> different?

Leadership and vision (or rather lack thereof) are two of the 
most critical issues holding D back. Forget quality for the 
moment, it can be well approximated by a simple game of numbers:

D:
     Walter and Andrei
     No vision document for I've forgotten how long
     No regular direction steering meetings with users (mod that 
one ~5 months ago)
     One conference a year
     A few local regional get togethers
     DLF

C++:
     Herb, Marshall, Bjarne, ...
     Multiple direction documents / roadmaps for language, 
library, ecosystem, HPC, ...
     C++ standards committees: 1 week every 3 months
     I don't even know how many conferences per year
     Who knows how many local gatherings
     C++ alliance / C++ standards body

And I'll be blunt, much of your recent leadership has actually 
been gatekeeping, especially w.r.t refactoring.

How to remedy this?

Well _I'm_ starting with:
the DConf AGM (draft agenda to be published soon™).
DLF quarterly meetings, especially if we can get them to coincide 
with various regional quarterly gatherings
Greater (corporate) participation in DLF processes, vision 
outreach.

What are you going to do?