An extolment for Walter

[Yigal Chripun]

Jesse Phillips wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:58:36 -0400, Jarrett Billingsley wrote:
> 
>> "Yigal Chripun" <yigal100 at gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:g55vng$2b6q$1 at digitalmars.com...
>>
>>> change something in D - like the recent change to the opEqueals return
>>> type to bool (that only took what, two years?)
>> Oh, longer than that!  Arcane Jill was arguing for it in 2004, and
>> probably earlier.
> 
> We didn't have a bool type at that time, though maybe it was for bit? 
> Anyway, implementation time vs convincing it should be changed.
> 
> Yigal, I like your idea, but as Walter has said there are open-source 
> compilers and if GCC is to much off a headache finish LVDCSGORO whatever.

Two problems:
A) as already noted by others, messing with gcc source code is not easy
and that is a major point in my post. there's a reason python uses pypy
to test new features instead of their C based implementation: what would
take a month with c is done in a day or two with python. You don't care
for performance for this since it's just for testing purposes. when the
python devs are convinced that the feature should be added to the
official version than they'll port it to C, optimize it, etc..
using gcc to test new features is the complete reverse of that.

B) this point is even more important - pypy is officially used by the
python devs. sure I can use gcd to test new ideas. I also can use other
compilers like dil, dang, etc. since those are not the official
reference implementation than if the new idea does pan out to be a good
thing, it still doesn't mean Walter will even look at it and consider
adding it to dmd. than we go back to trying to convince him that we have
a good idea. the whole process I described needs to be part of the
development process of the official reference implementation in order to
be effective, otherwise, we get a fork of D.
the gcc-concepts branch for example is the version used by the c++
committee itself for testing purposes, not a third-party fork of gcc.
it'll be merged to the gcc main trunk when the feature is finalized.
same goes for all the approved pypy extensions for python.
thus, Walter needs to be part of such a development process and be the
final decision maker on what new ideas will be incorporated into D.