D is our last hope

[Luna]

On Monday, 18 December 2023 at 15:48:02 UTC, GrimMaple wrote:
> On Monday, 18 December 2023 at 14:08:19 UTC, bachmeier wrote:
>>> Also telling they get the job done "quietly", are you trying 
>>> to hide the fact dlang is nearly dead
>>
>> It doesn't add anything to the conversation to make ridiculous 
>> claims like this with no evidence. Calling D "nearly dead" 
>> indicates you're not making a good faith effort to participate 
>> in a discussion.
>
> I find it very funny how every time I ask anybody to show me 
> any "real app" written in D (to prove that D isn't dead), 
> nobody can do it. All I hear is "Symmetry this" and "Symmetry 
> that". Sometimes DPlug comes by. But I still haven't seen any 
> real life useful app being developed in D. Never. So it's 
> always either Symmetry, either some rumors about some company 
> allegedly using D back in 2015 to do something with no real 
> proof that D is still there or it was used in the first place.
>
> What is the point of a programming language? For me, it's to 
> make software. If the software isn't being made - the language 
> is dead.
>
>> They didn't post complaints, they wrote code. Then once they 
>> wrote all those libraries, other people used them.
>
> For real? People complain about Python all the time. And 
> because of those complaints something is being done about it. 
> People complain because they care. When people stop complaining 
> it's a telltale sign that they stopped caring (or left). Which 
> is probably why you don't see a lot of complaints about D - 
> because nobody is really writing D anyway. Every single person 
> has left already.
>
>> What will help this language at this point is working on 
>> libraries, documentation, tutorials, etc.
>
> I have been saying the same thing for a logn time now. But 
> now-now, I say nobody will write libraries for a language that 
> actively prevents you from writing libraries in the first 
> place. Like, why do you expect someone to do their job when 
> they **dare** to complain about stuff? The amount of times I've 
> been told to "shut up and do it yourself" is seriously 
> unacceptable. To a degree of being told "just fork the lang if 
> you don't like it". This is no way to drive in contributors.
>
> On Monday, 18 December 2023 at 15:14:51 UTC, Hors wrote:
>> From me: all languages haves something to offer, like python 
>> is beginner friendly, C was the master of it's time, Rust 
>> allows you to write good performant and safe code. But I can't 
>> really see whats D has to offer, D has many features of 
>> course, but when you using libraries, you may need to throw 
>> away half of the D.
>
> Actually, over time, D became significantly lacking in features 
> compared to other languages. The world has changed, and at this 
> point in time, with Native AOT being a thing and producing 
> reasonably sized executables, C# became a much better choice 
> for me. And guess where I'm going to :)

All the software my company (Kitsunebi Games) and my main 
project, Inochi2D, is written in D.

I am currently also speccing out a new UI toolkit for use in the 
Inochi2D project with a more modern look, working on a 
[library](https://github.com/Inochi2D/numem) to make DLang usable 
without a GC while still maintaining support for classes and such 
to make D libraries more usable outside of D, and such.

Inochi2D is also by extension bringing new blood in to the D 
community through people interested in contributing to the 
project, as well as people getting interested in D by extension 
of Inochi2D being written in D. And as it stands unless Walter 
does something really stupid with the language I do not intend 
switching away from D.

That being said I do sometimes feel like I need to maintain my 
own corner of the D ecosystem due to the lack of well maintained 
libraries, but hopefully the new blood joining through the 
Inochi2D community will help maintain all the libraries and apps 
I'm creating, heh.

Additionally, I now collaborate with the Dplug maintainers to 
make libraries more usable across the language ecosystem besides 
just Inochi2D.

One thing to hope is that the NLnet grant I applied for goes 
through, would mean I could work another year on Inochi2D and 
surrounding libraries instead of taking on contract work, thereby 
expanding the part of the D ecosystem made for desktop apps.