If D becomes a failure, what's the key reason, do you think?

[Georg Wrede]

Trevor Parscal wrote:
\\ lots of good stuff deleted, with which I mostly agree, too.

My, 2c:

A 1.0 is a 1.0, and the whole world knows it. There are warts, 
inconsistencies, omissions, etc. But a 1.0 out today is a lot better 
than a 1.0 out 2 years from now.

And it's true, the window for us doesn't stay open indefinitely!!!

If nothing else, then in time somebody will get fed up, and publish a 
language called Dip-off, which is just almost D, but with some 
hard-to-do things thrown out, and some Commercially Important stuff 
added (like working variable protection and module logic).

And they'll tout it all over the place, hyping it as Fully Ready, 
Complete, a No-Brainer Choice, -- and Everything D Should Have Been.

All lies, of course, but hey, that's life. And with those lies they get 
the venture capitalists interested, and with that money they hire 
professionals to write a decent manual, some fast-buck tomes for 
bookstores, and start giving away a crippled version while charging for 
the real compiler. (And of course, all this is targeted to Windows users 
only -- that's where the money is, and the people who are used to pony 
up even for taking a leak.)

And they hire sleazy pressure salespersons to go coerce some visible 
companies to publish Strategic Alliances with them. Paid "editorial" 
content everywhere praises the alliances, the new era, the firm, and 
sometimes even the language itself. The street wisdom becomes "Dip-off 
or drop off". Nobody can afford to not use it. And definitely nobody can 
afford to admit ignorance of it.

-- Meanwhile in a dark chamber the mad scientist has now a pergament 
complexion from sustained lack of outdoor light, and an increasingly 
tightening viscious circle of "I just have to fix this one tiny thing, 
before releasing!" and "I really ought to fix the library instead, but 
damn, I just noticed another itsy bug, gotta fix that like yesterday." 
and "I should actually write the docs, rewrite and review the spec, and 
write an introductory handbook. Damn! But not now, I'll do it next week, 
honest!" and "Just one more bug fix first, I swear!"

And D is down to #50 and Dip-off up to #5 and climbing, on The Chart.

-- Back to Dip-off HQ: The PR guy is complaining to the CEO about 
customers becoming dissatisfied about the libraries. The seasoned VC who 
also is the chairman interrupts with "Naaw, not to worry. First of all, 
we only target the Windows World, where everyone is used to sub-par 
stuff, and second, we've got enough revenue to cover some serious 
library development. Actually we've already stolen folks from M$, Sun, 
Oracle and Google. And we still don't have to touch the second half of 
the Venture Capital!"

Next day customer support is telling the CEO that some folks are using 
real D for some of their own library development, and others are porting 
stuff to Linux with GDC. CEO decides to introduce subtle 
incompatibilities to thwart those smartbutts. Six months later Dip-off 
1.1 is released, this time with even more fanfare and BS. (Ehh I mean, 
Marketing.)

-- Meanwhile, the Original Disciples are growing fewer. Some get old and 
retire altogether, some take the pragmatic switch to the Commercially 
Usable Dip-off, of course with a bad conscience, some others are getting 
a bad attack of Cognitive Dissonance and they decide to move away from 
compiled languages altogether, this time for good. Others are torn 
between loyalty and their own bosses, who insist on you-know-which.

Dip-off Corp advertises Certification levels for the language, power 
workshops, personalised internet tutoring, hi-priority consulting, 
whole-department immersive 2-week courses in the Rockies, sponsor 
teen-age programming contests all over the world, show celebrities using 
it or bragging about cost savings and reliabilty, sell T-shirts, cups, 
frisbees, and badges with flashing micro leds.

A deal with McDonalds is announced. Every toddler who can cite at least 
20 keywords, or 200 library functions, will get a compiler license for 
half the price, and be included in a lottery boasting a 5-year old 
laptop for 10 winners. Old laptops because "Dip-off is so efficient!" 
The next generation genuinely feel Dip-off is like Coca-Cola, it simply 
is an integral part of our world.

15 years later we zoom to the stage at ACM SIGPLAN HOPL-V (a conference 
on the history of programming languages), where an old man shyly climbs 
up wile the audience ask each other, who is this guy, and the others say 
that he's one of the Great, right with Naur, Wirth, McCarthy, Steele, 
Kay, Moore, Ritchie, Stroustrup.

The old man waits till it's quiet, and then says in a thin voice "It's 
out." Then he stops and looks at everybody. There's a silence. The 
audience wonder if something happened, the old man is just looking at 
everybody in the auditorium. He seems perplexed, turning almost frightend.

The next day we go to the ACM web site, maybe they know what happened. 
Yes, the speaker had expected a huge reaction from the audience, for he 
had finally finished D 1.0.