Segregating the standard library

[Chris Miller]

On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 17:47:19 -0500, Daniel Keep  
<daniel.keep.lists at gmail.com> wrote:

> * We need to make a clear distinction between the absolute bare-minimum
> for the compiler and produced programs to function (let's call that the
> core lib) and everything else (the standard lib.)
>
>   The core lib would probably contain things like intrinsics, and
> anything else necessary (I think that also includes Object

Agreed.

The core should allow D to be used for OS development with little effort,  
and should allow D to be used as a C replacement, only using D's core  
features and only C's library.

This would make it a real systems programming language. Right now to  
achieve this you have to do a bit of implementation-specific hacking.

There's also a gray area where D itself depends on the GC, such as when  
using length properties, ~= and ~ operators, and array literals. Perhaps  
these should just segfault if used only with the D core and no replacement  
GC.

- Chris