Why is D unpopular?

[Dukc]

On Saturday, 30 April 2022 at 17:39:04 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 4/30/2022 1:32 AM, Paulo Pinto wrote:
>> Switching gears to ranges, we have Smalltalk-80 collections as 
>> one possible example,
>> 
>> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2409926_Interfaces_and_Specifications_for_the_Smalltalk-80_Collection_Classes
>
> C++ went the iterator approach. Ranges in C++ occurred only 
> after D did them.

We're strange. IIRC Bjarne's third C++ book from 1998 already 
discusses a bit about ranges, albeit calling them "sequences". It 
shows a few examples how they can work, by pairing iterators into 
one type, and then goes on to other topics.

Spending any amount of time using Phobos ranges will reveal them 
as clearly superior to iterators in common usage. One would think 
that when the idea has been around at least 24 years, ranges 
would have long since displaced iterators as the recommended 
standard C++ construct. Yet no.

BTW, As I understand it ranges came to D at around 2008 or 2009. 
Out of interest, what was D's way of doing the same tasks before 
that?