How fast is D compilation compared to C++?

[IGotD-]

On Saturday, 24 September 2022 at 08:49:46 UTC, Imperatorn wrote:
>
> This is something we should emphasize more when talking about D.
>
> I have been in D for some years now, and I still don't 
> understand why it never really seems to "catch on". It's ready 
> now, I would consider using it in production.
>
> I think before I was too focused on trying to find a c(pp) 
> replacement for embedded, but I now think the world isn't ready 
> yet to replace C, it might not happen in 30 years.
>
> But other than that, D is superior in many ways. The language 
> itself is ready, the ecosystem and IDE (maybe this is better 
> now as well) are the only things holding it back. Or maybe just 
> ecosystem then, which comes with a bigger community. People 
> need to understand that D is a serious option. I get the 
> impression in various contexts that for some reason, people 
> think D is not ready for serious enterprise use. But I never 
> got an explanation to why it wouldn't.
>
> It's one of the 10 greatest mysteries of the world.

Because it is how the D project is managed. If I would have been 
a project manager, that alone would be enough to avoid the 
language. There is also significant resistance to evolve the 
language which is needed. D is a product of the 90s but the world 
has moved on from there. C# is also a product of the 90s but has 
evolved with time. This is really sad because D is really a nice 
language but a lost opportunity.

I will move on and I'm currently looking into if Swift can be a 
better choice and by the looks of it, it is. Swift is like a user 
friendly version of Rust. The big difference is that Swift is 
backed by Apple which sets up certain requirements for a 
language. They couldn't just take Rust because it wouldn't fit 
and would be too difficult coming from Objective-C. Instead they 
make a new language from the ground up to fit their developer 
base. Here we have real "customers" that have 
requirements/desires which D doesn't really have but more a 
hobbyist approach.

BTW. Swift has a binary literal which has been the from the 
beginning and nobody really cares/questions it (being pretty high 
level they are probably rarely used). The D maintainers want to 
remove binary literals which is a good indication how tone deaf 
the management is and thus the project runs they way it does.

It's not a mystery for me but pretty obvious why D isn't more 
popular.