Version 1.0 or Version 2.0?

[Frits van Bommel]

Michael Kiermaier wrote:
> I want to program in D, but I am not sure if I should go with Version 1.0 or with Version 2.0.
> 
> What would you recommend?

Depends on what you want. If you want something to work without code 
modification 1.0 would be the way to go. For cutting-edge features (see 
below) go with 2.0, but be aware that this comes at the cost of possibly 
breaking backwards compatibility in newer versions.

> Some more specific questions:
> Is there a list of the language changes from 1.0 to 2.0?

Currently it's mostly stuff to do with final/const/invariant and the 
fact that class invariants now need "()" to be added to avoid an 
ambiguity caused by this.

For a complete list (and changes in future versions, once they 
materialize), compare the changelogs for the 2.0 and 1.0[*] branches 
(http://www.digitalmars.com/d/changelog.html and 
http://www.digitalmars.com/d/1.0/changelog.html#new1_017, respectively).
For this purpose, you can probably ignore the "Bugs Fixed" sections and 
focus on "New/Changed Features".

[*]: starting at 1.017

> Are there any plans for a 2.0 gdc (the GNU compiler) frontend?

I don't know about this one. It might depend on how much work it'd be, 
since keeping up with Walter seems to be a lot of work already with just 
one branch...