D programming language popularity

[Paulo Pinto]

On Wednesday, 4 November 2020 at 23:44:04 UTC, random wrote:
>
> 3. Garbage Collector:
> - If you can live with GC there are nice alternatives. Kotlin 
> looks promising.
> C# is also a really decent language in my opinion (and cross 
> platform with .net 5).
> A language compiling to native code with system level features 
> and a GC is just a strange niche. You can turn of the GC but 
> then you can't use all of the language anymore. I can't imagine 
> a situation in which i really have to use a native language but 
> want a GC...

Maybe you specifically don't, but the US navy seem to be quite at 
home with it.

https://www.ptc.com/en/blogs/plm/ptc-perc-virtual-machine-technology-at-the-of-aegis-the-shield-of-the-fleet

"Given the need for predictable and reliable compliance with 
sub-millisecond timing constraints, Lockheed Martin evaluated a 
number of alternative approaches to real-time Java.  
Ultimately, they chose to use the PTC Perc Ultra virtual machine 
(formerly called Aonix Perc Ultra), both in single-core and 
multi-core configurations. This technology adds real-time 
determinism to Standard Edition Java APIs by incorporating 
real-time garbage collection, fixed-priority real-time 
scheduling, prioritized queues and priority inheritance locks 
within the implementation of the virtual machine."

Just one example among others that I can point out for PTC and 
Aicas, which despite being JVMs, also support bare metal 
deployments for this kind of targets, thus as native as anything 
else that AOT compiles to native code with a language runtime.

Then there are these products:

Astrobe selling Oberon devkits for ARM, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4, 
Cortex-M7 and now RISC-V, in business for about 20 years.

https://www.astrobe.com/Oberon.htm

F-Secure using their own Go port for secure firmware, among them 
their own computer on an USB key, USB Armory

https://www.f-secure.com/en/consulting/foundry/usb-armory

So there is a market, even if you personally don't care about it.