When will D1 be finished?

[Robert Clipsham]

Stewart Gordon wrote:
> (a) having a spec that the public agrees to be complete and consistent

I think this is probably the most important of your points. Without a 
complete and consistent spec, there's no possible way to make a correct 
compiler. All features need to be in there, explaining how they should 
work in detail. This is a blocker for anyone who wants to write a D 
compiler currently, they have to go by dmd in some cases rather than the 
spec.

> (b) all language features implemented

I think this is probably least important currently. Most (if not all) 
major features have been implemented in D1, and D2 is still in alpha so 
has no requirement for this.

> (c) all of the most serious known bugs and most of the others fixed

This comes right after a complete spec on what I'd rate as important. 
While some of these bug fixes might be seen as "breaking changes" that 
shouldn't be in D1, I think we'll live. I know I'd rather have to update 
a load of code to comply with the spec than have a load of invalid code 
that works forever, even if it is a pain to update. I think frontend 
bugs should take priority here, as they effect all compilers that use 
it, not just dmd.

> But generally, it's about time D1 got a move on....

Agreed. I've had trouble getting people to use D due to (mainly) those 3 
rough edges. Having 3 year old unfixed bugs in the bug tracker doesn't 
help with persuasion.

> ...when we reach this practical milestone, maybe we could call it D 1.1?

I guess this is up to Walter. Would D 1.1 just be a milestone for D, or 
would it need a new spec? Maybe D 1.1 could be a fork of D1 which 
introduces the breaking changes and finalizes the spec? That way we 
don't have the issue of breaking D1.0. When it is complete D1.0 could be 
marked deprecated and D1.1 could take its place. Or of course the 
changes could take place in D1.0 and gradually introduce the breaking 
changes, making D1.1 the final result (or maybe just D1.098, however 
many revisions of the compiler it takes :P).

Robert