D programming language popularity

[aberba]

On Monday, 26 October 2020 at 02:14:07 UTC, Laeeth Isharc wrote:
> On Tuesday, 13 October 2020 at 07:24:23 UTC, aberba wrote:
>> On Sunday, 11 October 2020 at 13:32:19 UTC, bachmeier wrote:
>>> On Sunday, 11 October 2020 at 11:24:42 UTC, Imperatorn wrote:
>>>> When looking for languages to learn, you have to start 
>>>> "somewhere".
>>>>
>>>> How do we make D part of this "somewhere"?
>>>
>>> Why would someone use D? If the best you can do is come up 
>>> with a list of technical features of the language, you have 
>>> your answer as to why it's not on those lists. Not many 
>>> people go looking for a programming language. They're looking 
>>> for a solution to a problem.
>>>
>>
>> I think this answers it. Rarely am I looking at the language 
>> itself (for the job). So I think it's flawed to focus solely 
>> on the language itself. If the ecosystem (of packages and 
>> development tools) doesn't provide me with an easy way of 
>> getting things done, then what's the point?
>>
>> So this is a primary reason why I'll choose one language over 
>> another. Most coders I know are not capable nor willing to 
>> build their own stuff when it's available out of the box in 
>> other languages.
>
> Depends on what kind of programming it is and the kind of 
> people you have. ...
> I think it's a mistake to focus mostly on making D more 
> accessible; a little doesn't hurt.  D will gain adoption from 
> people like Weka.io - absolutely nobody would advise building a 
> new storage startup using an emerging language that nobody at 
> your startup knows.  But almost nobody would succeed in 
> building the world's fastest parallel storage system (and not 
> by a little) in a few years.  So D is like a secret weapon for 
> disruptive innovation that's only available to people who are 
> already quite unusual sorts of people.
>

That's assuming that the dev population is all Weka.io...which is 
quite the opposite. Only a few people are going to build the 
fastest file system, etc, ...and C++ is already matured enough 
for such (for those already with C++ workforce).

Cooperates might use D if they are sure to have enough devs to 
hire...and that comes after it's popularly used among regular 
devs. And regular devs start from somewhere.

Someone built vibe.d...and it's the most popular on dub
Someone built arsd and it's popular
etc. etc.

The majority of devs are consumers (and some might build 
something for the ecosystem)...but it starts from somewhere.

BTW...there was a lot of nitpicking of vibe.d and dub but it 
seems?? most of those people have gotten used to it. We need more 
of such stuff in the package repository.