[Fwd: Re: [go-nuts] Re: Generics false dichotomy]

[logicchains]

On Sunday, 16 February 2014 at 20:29:04 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> It's not exactly true. What has happened is I spent a LOT of 
> time trying to make my C/C++ compiler fast. That experience has 
> enabled me to design D so it is fundamentally fast to compile, 
> and enabled me to pick an internal design for the compiler that 
> I know will be fast.

Isn't this kind of the point? The Go devs don't have the somewhat 
unique experience of having written a C++ compiler from scratch 
to guide them in implementing generics in Go, so it doesn't make 
practical sense to say "D has fast-compiling generics, so why 
can't Go?". Just because a good generics system is theoretically 
possible, doesn't mean it's easy to design. Personally, I think 
comparing C++ to C shows that no generics is better than poorly 
designed generics (C++ templates).