Dynamic D Library

[teo]

One major problem is the D's inability to create dynamic libraries. D is a great language, but without that ability it can only be used for small programs, tools, etc. and never in production.

The D Runtime is a step forward, because it faces that problem. I noticed following:

extern (C) void* rt_loadLibrary( in char[] name );
extern (C) bool rt_unloadLibrary( void* ptr );

/**

 * Locates a dynamic library with the supplied library name and dynamically

 * loads it into the caller's address space.  If the library contains a D

 * runtime it will be integrated with the current runtime.

 *

 * Params:

 *  name = The name of the dynamic library to load.

 *

 * Returns:

 *  A reference to the library or null on error.

 */

static void* loadLibrary( in char[] name )

{

    return rt_loadLibrary( name );

}



/**

 * Unloads the dynamic library referenced by p.  If this library contains a

 * D runtime then any necessary finalization or cleanup of that runtime

 * will be performed.

 *

 * Params:

 *  p = A reference to the library to unload.

 */

static bool unloadLibrary( void* p )

{

    return rt_unloadLibrary( p );

}


However “If the library contains a D
 runtime it will be integrated with the current runtime.
” Is this really needed? If the intention is to replace C/C++ some day, why not just provide a dynamic D library? (like in this project: http://www.dsource.org/projects/ddl/) It can contain only compiled D code accompanied with meta-data like platform, version, etc. and be used only by D programs. No runtime is needed within the DDL. When the DDL is loaded it will be managed by the same GC which manages the program itself. Even Phobos can be a DDL.

Maybe I am missing something and that's why I would like to hear your opinion.