Feedback from the Gripes and Wishes Campaign

[ryuukk_]

On Friday, 19 May 2023 at 11:43:06 UTC, GrimMaple wrote:
> I don't think that it can be attributed to stagnation itself, I 
> think Walter (and other core D devs) need to get out of the 
> compiler / phobos and start writing something useful in D. 
> Apps, frameworks, websites, whatever. Something that can be put 
> on the dlang.org main page under "Apps written in Full D". This 
> way they would learn how frustrating D is in real world, and 
> maybe they will stop breaking stuff and introducing features 
> nearly nobody asked for.

I haven't read Mike's post yet, i will right after this, but i 
wanted to address your reply first, because it kinda pains me

There are some features that are essential to be able achieve the 
vision D wants to achieve (pay as you go)

For example:

- **exception handing**: why use EH when you can have your 
function return 2 values (error and result)

- **gc**: why use classes/interfaces/new when you can just use a 
tagged union and pattern matching coupled with an Allocator API


This alone makes it so we can build a foundation of libraries 
that are both pragmatic and adhere to a "pay as you go" vision 
for the user

Now the GC discourse is no more! want to use a GC? just pass 
GCAllocator, wants to do it manually because you have certain 
requirement? (game) use this GeneralPurposeAllocator, or make 
your very own

Pragmatism is great, lets the user choose about what path to take 
rather than enforcing a path to the user with a specific 
assumption


> Besides that, D suits game developemnt really well, thanks to 
> its easily controllable garbage collection and access to low 
> level features to speed up your code when necessary

Yes and No, for D it's not since it is blocking

You want to have full control over your memory allocation 
strategy anyways

Read about how people workaround GC problems in both 
Unreal/Unity, let's not come up with the same problems, that's 
not how you'll win users, why would they use something less 
popular, that has the same problems but worse?

Being pragmatic, and having an allocator API would solve the GC 
problem people have in both Unreal/Unity, they don't so they 
waste time workingaround

Be the solution to their problems, not a copy pasta, i always 
seen D as being the pragmatic solution, hence i choose to stick 
with D ~4 years ago, it's unfortunatly winding down as i read 
more people who are against having essential and foundational 
features