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

[Kyle Furlong]

Georg Wrede wrote:
> 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.

*Standing Ovation*

-- 
Kyle Furlong // Physics Undergrad, UCSB

"D is going wherever the D community wants it to go." - Walter Bright