Is D really that bad?

[Walter Bright]

On 10/30/2022 12:16 PM, Imperatorn wrote:
> It does not compute my friends.

Stories contributing to my education on this matter:

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Company A would come to us and say: "we'll buy a bunch of your compilers, but we 
need X implemented."

We'd implemented X, and rush back to A: "we got X implemented! How many 
compilers do you wish to purchase?"

A says: "er, well, uhh, .... we also need Y! Yeah, do Y and we'll be ready to buy!"

You can guess where this goes. We do Y, and then they want Z. It's a 
never-ending merry-go-round. They were never going to buy it, they just didn't 
want to say that, so they'd just come up with some imagined deficit and use that 
as an excuse.
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A friend of mine, a Java user, in the 90's while talking to me said that what 
the world needs was a native Java compiler. He went on and on about it, saying 
it would be a huge success for me (I wrote a Java compiler for Symantec) and 
would make a big impact.

At the end of this, I said "I think you're right. So right, in fact, that I 
already developed a native Java compiler. You can download it right now and use it!"

He was silent. Of course he didn't download it. It didn't take the world by 
storm, either.
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This was recounted by a friend of mine. He was kibitzing with a colleague who 
adamantly claimed that the most important feature of a C++ compiler was compile 
speed. So my friend asked him which C++ compiler he used. The reply was 
Microsoft C++. My friend laughed and said that compiler speed was the lowest 
priority to him, as MSC++ was, at the time, the slowest C++ compiler on the 
market. Zortech C++ was 4x as fast at compilation.

The most important feature for him was the brand name.
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I was driving home after seeing a movie with friends. One them remarked about 
how I hated the movie. I was shocked, saying I loved the movie. The reply: "but 
you only said negative things about it." Upon reflection, that was an accurate 
description of what I did, and what I normally did.
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The lessons I learned from this are:

1. some people just like to complain

2. existing users are far, far more worthwhile to listen to than others

3. existing users who have specific problems in their workflow with the product 
are the ones to prioritize

4. marketing is unbelievably important

5. be careful that you're not just making a faster horse. Sometimes you gotta 
take a chance and build a car