Constraints & Concepts [Was: Re: C++0x news]

[anton smith]

bearophile Wrote:

> General comment on the cpp0x.html page: C++/C++0x and Java are legacy languages (but the most successful), so they can't be enough to design D. So I suggest to try for few days the C#3.5+ and Scala languages too, they probably already solve some of the problems that need to be found D still...

Indeed, just observing C++/C++0x is a bit short-sighted. The C++ has never been a great source of language innovation. Some other languages have learned from the lessons with C++ and built something completely new. I'd also recommend all language designers to experiment with new languages once in a while. C# is really great (4.0 coming soon!) and even VB.Net nowadays comes with type inference and lambdas. They certainly didn't get these ideas from C++03, C++98, or C99.

Probably 75% of D could have been invented by just improving C++ with C# 3.5 features. Properties, delegates, strings in switches, extension methods etc.