State of and plans for the garbage collector

[Jonathan M Davis]

Okay. I really don't know much about garbage collectors, how they work, or what 
makes one particularly good or bad (other than the fact that it needs to be 
efficient execution-wise and manage memory wisely so that you don't use too much 
of it or do anything else that would be an overall negative for performance). 
However, from the comments here - both recent and in the past - it's pretty 
clear that D's garbage collector is fairly outdated. I would assume that that 
would be negative for performance - certainly it would mean that significant 
improvements could be made.

So, my question is this: what are the plans for the garbage collector? Is the 
intention to continue to improve it bit by bit, to give it a major overhaul at 
some point, to outright replace it at a later date, or something else entirely?

If D is going to compete with C and C++, it needs to be highly efficient, and if 
the garbage collector isn't up to snuff, that's going to be a big problem. I'm 
not looking to complain about the current garbage collector - I really don't 
know how good or bad it is - but if it is rather poor (as I've gotten the 
impresison that it is - at least in some respects - from various discussions on 
it here), then I'd assume that it needs a major overhaul or replacement at some 
point. So, are there any specific plans with regards to that, or is that just 
something that may be considered in the future?

- Jonathan M Davis