Worst ideas/features in programming languages?

[Paul Backus]

On Thursday, 14 October 2021 at 01:33:59 UTC, russhy wrote:
> On Wednesday, 13 October 2021 at 02:39:47 UTC, Paul Backus 
> wrote:
>> If anyone wants to work on a DIP and implementation for 
>> built-in sum types, they will have my full support. 
>> Unfortunately, I do not have the time or the skills necessary 
>> to lead such a project myself.
>
> it worth doing the extra kilometer to avoid having the 
> situation we have currently, for yet another std package
>
> going easy road for what short term benefits? other languages 
> have tagged union built into the language, same for nullable, 
> it's proven to be very useful

Sometimes the difference is not between "easy" and "hard", but 
between "possible" and "impossible".

If you have never written a DIP, or contributed to DMD, it is 
easy to underestimate the amount of work required to add a new 
language feature to D. I have done both, and I can say with 
confidence that adding built-in sum types will take *at least* 
10x the effort it has taken to get std.sumtype to its current 
state.

I would love for D to have built-in sum types, believe me. But 
adding them is simply too big a project for a single volunteer 
like me to take on.

If you really want this to happen, I think your best bet is to 
convince Walter and the D Foundation to make it an official 
priority, and sponsor someone to work on it.