D's tail

Johan j at j.nl
Thu Aug 12 16:47:14 UTC 2021


On Thursday, 12 August 2021 at 13:42:27 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
> On 8/11/21 7:33 AM, Johan wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 10 August 2021 at 00:53:29 UTC, Brian Tiffin wrote:
>>>
>>> So it's a question.  What is a reasonable life expectancy for 
>>> the projects I start in D today?
>> 
>> Keeping the code compatible with multiple frontends is a large 
>> burden, currently avoided by specifying the compiler version 
>> in the codebase and using that exact compiler on build systems 
>> and developer's machines (i.e. each dev will have multiple 
>> compilers on his machine, automatically downloaded and used by 
>> build system). Updating the compiler to a new version is a 
>> lengthy process. Weka is currently at LDC 1.24 (with Weka 
>> modifications).
>
> FWIW the situation is similar with large-scale C++ projects as 
> well. Whenever I teach, I first ask people what version of 
> their C++ compiler they're on - does it support C++14, C++17, 
> etc. Many mention some really outdated release and invariably 
> invoke the difficulty of upgrading due to compilation errors 
> and performance issues.
>
> Also, most of big tech hack into their C++ compiler (and some 
> their Linux, too).

Hi Andrei,
   Indeed, good to include that perspective.
Do you think that industrial C++ programming has become more 
standard compliant in the last ~10years ?  E.g. due to the 
availability of viable gcc alternative clang compiler, thus you 
start to notice the reliance on compiler specifics; and also 
perhaps due to the compiler community putting emphasis on 
standard compliance (even MSVC).

Regardless of standard compliance, performance deltas will remain 
an issue.

cheers,
   Johan



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