Why is D unpopular, redux.

[Dukc]

On Tuesday, 24 May 2022 at 10:22:31 UTC, burjui wrote:
> Why D is unpopular? Because people don't stay. As I can only 
> truly speak for myself, here's the reason why I left:
> https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2043
>
> This bug is 14 years old already, and the memory-corrupting 
> code still compiles, unless you enable DIP1000 (not a standard 
> yet).

It's becoming one. The latest Dmd, 2.100, already prints a 
deprecation message about DIP1000-noncompatible code unless you 
explicitly add `-revert=dip1000`. And it's quickly becoming 
stable too. Only three or four releases ago, you continuosly 
discovered bugs if trying to seriously use DIP1000 but in my 
experience, there's only a fraction of that anymore.

>
> There are many more papercuts like that in D: incomplete and 
> poorly designed features, bugs that don't get fixed, the 
> overall lack of computer science backing, resulting in what I 
> would call a complex graph of hacks rather an elegant language.

I partially agree with that. But on the practical side, the 
features are often complete enough to be useful. For example, 
even with all it's shortcomings, I still vastly prefer `-betterC` 
to C!

And when the features are too incomplete for use, you can simply 
ignore them.

>
> And one of the main problems, imho, is Walter himself. He's 
> like a child that wants to play with his favourite toys, e.g. 
> ImportC, but hates doing homework. That's why we have many 
> shiny new features in D, but bugs can rot their way into DMD 
> for decades. I get that behaviour, I was like that most of my 
> life. Judging from my own experience, he may even have 
> untreated ADHD. He's great at programming, but sucks at 
> leadership. And D is no longer his own toy, it's a project with 
> many people depending on it. Whatever the problem with Walter 
> is, it's outright irresponsible to have him as a leader.

You're way too harsh. Anyone here with experience about the 
subject can tell that Walter has made many highly controversial 
decisions. But I suspect it's simply because language leadership 
is incredibly hard. Most people would probably not have some of 
the Walter's blind spots, but they would have other weaknesses 
and would almost certainly lack some of the exceptional qualities 
of Walter. Compiler knowledge, persistance and experience for 
example. And even if you find someone more capable, the chances 
of him/her being willing for the thankless job are slim.