D has become unbearable and it needs to stop

[Martyn]

On Monday, 19 June 2023 at 13:38:58 UTC, bachmeier wrote:
> On Sunday, 18 June 2023 at 17:49:38 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> On 6/17/2023 5:14 AM, monkyyy wrote:
>>> All you need to say is "d version 99 is the lts for the next 
>>> 3 year" or maybe a formal blog post by 5ish people.
>>
>> Somebody needs to step up and pull fixes into it.
>
> If you go back only three years, that means there are currently 
> nine major releases of DMD still in use in the wild, plus 
> whatever releases of LDC and GDC have happened since then. Are 
> they getting bug fixes? If not, why not?
>
> We all know that requiring LTS to get all bug fixes makes it a 
> big project, and that the probability of someone actually doing 
> it is zero. It's not necessary and it's not sufficient to solve 
> the problem of having to support too many compiler releases.

I agree. While I don't think LTS releases needs to "get all bug 
fixes" - it doesn't stop it being a big project.

While some people may think this is a case of simply creating an 
LTS branch and... boom.. job done. It wont be as simple as that.

This needs some careful planning before going ahead with this. 
Besides, it is not worth putting effort into LTS if D developers 
are not onboard, especially library creators/maintainers. It is a 
change, afterall. One I am not willing to jump straight in 
without a cohesive plan.

This is especially the case for bug fixes towards an LTS - as we 
have to consider not just DMD, but GDC and LDC.

This wont be a one-man-task. I would guess atleast 3 people - 1 
per compiler.. minimum.

I don't think this will happen overnight. It will likely to be an 
oppotunity when it presents itself. How or when, I don't know. 
Maybe this wont come to fruition for a number of years.

   (wont stop me atleast looking into dmd compiler, atleast)

I want to see Dlang succeed. In my opinion, having LTS is a 
stepping stone towards this goal (even if it is a tiny stone in 
the grand scheme of things)
   - of course thats my opinion.