Future of D

[German Diago]

On Monday, 14 December 2020 at 19:42:41 UTC, aberba wrote:
> On Sunday, 13 December 2020 at 23:08:05 UTC, IGotD- wrote:
>> On Sunday, 13 December 2020 at 22:53:31 UTC, Paul Backus wrote:
>>>
>>> It's easy to sit around in our armchairs pontificating about 
>>> how, if only "the D community" (read: someone else) would do 
>>> X, Y, or Z, all of our problems would be solved.
>>>
>>> It's harder, but ultimately much more rewarding, to roll up 
>>> one's sleeves and actually make a positive contribution.
>>
>> This is not a one man job which someone can make a neat 
>> preview of. It's a decision that has to be made from the 
>> maintainers so that several people can start working with such 
>> a big task. Also documenting what needs to be done. This ties 
>> into the original post with the blog post, that the D project 
>> has problems with rallying people towards a common goal (which 
>> today is very vague).
>>
>> People starting to add and change things randomly and then 
>> hoping that it will be accepted and be merged isn't really a 
>> good way to run a project.
>
> Very well put.
>
> The main point of my post is that "What needs to be done" isn't 
> documented so unless you've spent some time in the community to 
> identify the issues out of experience or see them as they pop 
> up here in the forum.
>
> Hence D needs a Project Manager in addition to the PR Manager 
> (wait what happened to the PR manager?). I know devs don't like 
> project managers but the absence of such a person might not 
> speak well to certain companies/individuals looking to invest 
> in D (even if they like it). Isn't that one of the reasons why 
> we have a foundation in the first place? Without knowing the 
> high-level roadmap or core language priorities, what's there to 
> invest in? What about those looking for interesting problems 
> for their thesis? New volunteers?
>
> BeerConf has created room for community members to chat and 
> discuss D issues, and some ideas/mobilization has come from 
> that. It's a similar thing for why there needs to be a roadmap 
> or (at least) a priority list of some kind.
>

The project management stuff is totally true. I have been 
following D for like 15 years (I think) and D seems to have a 
permanent identity crisis. Set the priority and stick to it and 
give confidence. Yes, do it: refuse big stuff that does not 
fullfill thr goal. Do it. Even if someone gets pissed.

  In fact, even if D has a lot of nice things and is technically 
nice, it has a lack of vision. However, what I see here is people 
throwing random ideas as it has always happened. Like this, I 
think D goes nowhere. It is a pitty bc it has potential. But 
discussing and throwing random PRs is not going to cut it. 
Decisions need to be taken. For example (not a proposal at all): 
memory safety with live, RC, optional GC and the superior tool 
for GUI and server-side backend. Once decided, stick to it. Any 
language I have seen that is successful has direction: Go, 
Rust... even Nim looks more convinced of where they are heading. 
This kind of discussions are not going to fix anything. It is a 
let us talk what comes from the top off my head with zero 
direction permanently. Better to get serious surveys (I say this 
because since I started  to follow D, it is a perpetual thing 
that every once in a short while a post liie this arises. Energy 
that couldu probably be spent in setting direction (namely, 
taking decisions) and executing.

I know it is easy to critizice without doing anything but I have 
a severe lack of free time at this point. Just my two cents.

> Individualism simply isn't going to cut it.