ImportC's progress

[Walter Bright]

On 4/29/2022 9:03 AM, Paul Backus wrote:
> I would hardly call ImportC's implementation "correct" and "complete" at this 
> point, given the large number of outstanding bugs and the fact that it does not 
> even support the preprocessor yet.

https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/13955

which has been there for 3 weeks, and I can't get anyone to approve it.


> This is exactly what people mean when they call features of D "incomplete" or 
> "unfinished" or "half-assed": the happy path works, but important features are 
> missing and the edge cases are riddled with bugs.

ImportC is only a few months old. Is it realistic to expect an entire language 
implementation to work perfectly that quickly?

As for bugs, here is the current list:

https://issues.dlang.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=importc&list_id=240477

The ones older than a week fall into these categories:

1. asking for extensions to match extensions in other compilers
2. the { } initializer syntax, which needs to be completely redone


> I'm sure ImportC will improve, given enough time--maybe 3-5 years?

Oh, it'll be a lot quicker than that.


> But outside 
> of a tiny number of core developers such as yourself who work on D full-time, it 
> is unrealistic to expect an open-source contributor to see a project of that 
> scale through to completion. That's what I really mean by "basically 
> impossible". Not that it literally cannot be done, but that the amount of time 
> and effort required is prohibitive for the vast majority of contributors.

I'm not asking for help coding ImportC. I am asking for:

1. submit bug reports for problems (dave287091 at gmail.com and duser at neet.fi have 
been prolific in submitting very well done bug reports)

2. approve the PRs I submit for it