Coolest D features

[Dave]

Waldemar wrote:
> == Quote from Mike Parker (aldacron71 at yahoo.com)'s article
>> Bill Baxter wrote:
>>> I wholeheartedly agree with Waldemar, though, that the things that are
>>> going to sway C/C++ folks are different from what's going to sway
>>> Java/C# folks.  D's library and development tools are still rather
>>> anemic, so most likely that would send most Java/C# folks running.  On
>>> the other hand, if they find they need to deliver an app that works
>>> stand-alone, independent of a 100MB runtime environment, or one which
>>> runs at native speed, then D is probably the closest thing they're going
>>> to find to their beloved Java/C# that can do the job.
>>>
>> Being a long time Java programmer, I strongly disagree with you and
>> Waldemar both. Speed is only an issue for people who don't use Java, or
>> for those who don't really know how to properly write software with it.
>> Most Java programmers I know, myself included, call the "Java is slow"
>> mantra a myth. Java *used to* be slow, true. Today, it's possible to
>> code a clunky app in Java if you don't know what you are doing. But the
>> reality is that it's plenty fast in the general case. Plus, Java
> 
> Actually, the reality is Java is plenty slow in many applications. There is JNI
> for a reason.  Never mind cases where Java is not even considered (fast servers,
> OS internals, communication, graphics, driveres, embedded, etc, etc.)  As soon as
> Java reaches C/C++ speed, C++ will disappear.  Not too worry, won't happen any
> time soon.
> 
> Having said that, there is always a danger that Sun develops "low level Java" with
> performance truly matching C++.   If that happens D might as well close the shop.
>  Same thing with C#.  MS can definitely do it.  At the moment they go with this
> "safer" C/C++ with many custom libs and features.  But you can feel it's just one
> more step, so watch out.
> 

D is a great all-around language, but in order to get the benefits of a language like D ("low level 
Java"), you have to trade some safety and 'hand-holding'. The typical Sun and MS customer is not 
interested in paying Sun or MS for Java / .NET tools and support only to turn around and have to pay 
for tools / support for another 'lower level' language with a 'buggy' (because it's newer) port of 
the same library written for a native compiler.

I seriously doubt Sun or MS would invest in something like that when the market has been moving the 
other way for so long. For one thing there's the bottom line -- Sun makes it's profit from hardware 
and services [like tuning Java applications] and MS makes much of it's profit from new licenses for 
bloated software sold to run on newer, ever faster hardware.

Neither would really stand to 'profit' from an easy to use, high performance, natively compiled 
language when there's C/++ for those jobs already. MS has recently went to great expense to 
"retrofit" C++ for .NET, not the other way around. For a large company to produce a new language, go 
through the growing pains of developing a new language like D, and then retrofit the Java or .NET 
libs. to take advantage of the new language would be an enormous cost. Even with a huge amount of 
support, C# for example didn't take off overnight.

I forget the name of it, but Sun came up with a language / runtime intended for numerics. It is 
anything but small, lightweight and single-CPU efficient. It looked like more of a resource pig than 
even Hotspot. It's purpose was really to sell Sun hardware and services, no doubt.

I see it more likely that once D takes off, MS, Sun and others may then develop their own 
compilers/runtimes/libs. for D because they need the bundle to make their systems and tools the most 
appealing to a wide range of customers.