Using D, not developing D...

[torhu]

Henrik Harmsen wrote:
>> Henrik Harmsen wrote:
>> > Which version of DMD should I use if I need a stable compiler?
>> > 
>> > I want to use D for developing an application but I need a stable compiler (as bug free as possible). Will there be a fork into devel and stable? For me, that's necessary.
>> > 
<snip>

I think this has been asked before, and it doesn't seem likely to 
happen.  Walter probably thinks it's too much work to maintain two 
branches.  After all, he's alone on this project.

So I guess the answer would be to stick with one version of the compiler 
(1.0 or 1.007 seems like good choices at the moment).  And only upgrade 
when you know there's a version that contains a bug fix you need. 
Unittest and invariants might help verifying that your app behaves 
correctly with the new compiler version.

<snip>
> How do I know which features are in -v1? 
> For example, the compile time execution of functions doesn't seem to affect the language so it could be (is?) used for -v1 compilation. That is important to know since it affects performance of course.
> 
> How are additions and fixes to the devel version being kept from affecting the stable version?
> Example: Are bugs in the compile time execution of functions affecting -v1? Then -v1 is really useless as a stamp for stability.

-v1 just means that if your app compiled with dmd 1.0, it will still 
compile.  It only disables compiler features or changes that break 
backward compatibility.

Compile time functions don't affect runtime performance.  Functions are 
only executed at compile time when they are used in situations where a 
compile-time result is needed.  Like static initialization.  In other 
words, they have to be used in places where it was an error to use them 
in earlier compiler versions.