D-etractions A real world programmers view on D

[Peter Alexander]

On Saturday, 25 August 2012 at 21:17:55 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 8/25/2012 1:06 PM, Peter Alexander wrote:
>> On Saturday, 25 August 2012 at 19:39:47 UTC, Walter Bright 
>> wrote:
>>> On 8/25/2012 6:03 AM, Peter Alexander wrote:
>>>> Okay, so bitfields are rarely used, but many templates 
>>>> involve some use of CTFE,
>>>> and templates are very common in D code. It's good that D's 
>>>> parser is fairly
>>>> simple to implement (compared to C++ anyway), but to do 
>>>> automated refactoring
>>>> you need simple semantic analysis, and this is something 
>>>> that D does not have.
>>>
>>> How many IDEs can handle the C preprocessor, with token 
>>> pasting and all, when
>>> refactoring?
>>
>> Straw man - I didn't suggest that the C preprocessor was any 
>> better. C++ is
>> similarly criticised for its poor IDE support (when compared 
>> with C# and Java)
>> due to the pre-processor and templates. If you haven't seen 
>> the level of support
>> that (for example) Visual Studio provides for C# then I 
>> recommend checking it
>> out. I imagine the situation with Java and Eclipse is similar, 
>> but I don't have
>> any experience there.
>
>
> I don't agree it's a straw man - it's the point. A perfect job 
> is not necessary in order for people to find automated 
> refactoring useful.

I'm not sure how your previous comment supports that point.

C (and C++) don't do a perfect job, but as I said, they are 
similarly criticised for their poor IDE support.

I do agree with you: the tools don't need to do a perfect job, 
but I worry if they'll even be able to do a reasonable job. 
Templates, CTFE, mixins, etc. are all rampant in D, so I worry 
about the amount of work required for tool-developers to support 
a respectable subset of D that will stand up to criticism from 
the C#/Java folks.