ARM first & default LDC

M.M. matus at email.cz
Mon Dec 14 08:48:21 UTC 2020


On Monday, 14 December 2020 at 04:35:31 UTC, 9il wrote:
> ARM is going to conquer laptop and PC markets in the next few 
> years.
>
> Making LDC a default compiler looks like a more rational 
> solution. By default, I mean a branch where we do the main work 
> on the compiler and DRuntime and what is used to make the first 
> release of the new version of the compiler.
>
> I just realized why we still have DMD as the default compiler 
> and why probably we would have it in the near future.
>
> D Foundation wants to have full power to make all key 
> decisions. Making LDC a default compiler would also mean they 
> would need to share their authority with others. That is only 
> my opinion, I don't pretend it is right.
>
> Kind regards,
> Ilya

There are several points you made in your comment. I freely 
paraphrase the content:
i) ARM will dominate the consumer laptop market in the short 
future
ii) make LDC the compiler where language development happens (and 
other compilers take it from there)
iii) allow a more decentralized work on the default D compiler 
(currently dmd)

I agree that these are interesting points to discuss; yet I also 
think that they do not necessarily depend on each other(?), and 
they are interesting discussion points on their own.

Ad i): this might indeed be true (as observed by the efforts of 
Microsoft several years ago with their operating system, and 
currently with the success of the apple M1 processor), yet there 
are also open-source efforts on the horizon (risc-v and power), 
but I agree this battle might be decided in the next 1-2 years.

Ad ii): isn't it that having dmd the development branch allows 
GDC and LDC to follow? Also, why would one prefer LDC over GDC? 
GDC is part of GCC, which is huge. I think here an opinion from 
the compiler maintainers/developers is needed, and I would be 
delighted to  hear their (even very short) opinion.

Ad iii): Isn't it true that contributions to dmd are welcome? Are 
there technical obstacles in contributing? Philosophical ones?


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