Linux Agora D thread

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Thursday 21 October 2010 23:18:15 Gour wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> Few days ago I sent a short post to Linux Agora site explaining why
> I'm not participating any longer in 'learning Haskell' reading group
> and suggesting D as possible target of one of the future groups.
> 
> However, it looks that some are not excited about it:
> 
> http://www.linuxagora.com/vbforum/showpost.php?p=6313
> 
> I've tried to reply as best as I know, but...
> 
> He posted to his Hacker News as well:
> 
> http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1783810
> 
> If anyone has something to add, pls. feel free to do it...
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> Gour

For the most part, he seems to be spot on - certainly he's more knowledgeable 
than many D detractors out there. The main thing that I'd disagree with would be 
D's future, since he obviously thinks that it's never going to go anywhere, but 
only time will tell on that one.  My guess is that he was an active D user who 
got sick of things not stabilizing, which is quite understandable. While things 
have improved considerably, there are quite a few bugs in the compiler, and it 
doesn't yet completely implement the D spec per TDPL. However, the situation has 
much improved with the language as a whole no longer having massive changes on a 
semi-regular basis, so there's definitely a light at the end of the tunnel.

Still, at this point, you have people comparing D to languages which are 
essentially complete with compilers lacking much in the way of serious bugs, and 
D just doesn't measure up to that yet, even if it has great promise, and it 
works well enough to do a lot with it. Many such people just aren't going to 
want anything to do with D until it's stable in the way that C++ or Java is 
stable - both the compiler and the standard library.

In any case, that poster seems knowledgeable enough that I don't see much point 
in arguing with him. His opinion obviously differs from that of most of us on 
this list, but it's generally based quite soundly on facts, so only time will 
prove him wrong.

- Jonathan M Davis