So what exactly is coming with extended C++ support?

[Chris via Digitalmars-d]

On Tuesday, 30 September 2014 at 08:48:19 UTC, Szymon Gatner 
wrote:
> On Monday, 29 September 2014 at 20:15:06 UTC, bachmeier wrote:
>> On Monday, 29 September 2014 at 10:00:27 UTC, Szymon Gatner 
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Is that all it would take? Do you also need a GC-free standard 
>> library, which seems to be the need of all the others saying 
>> "do this and I'll switch from C++"? Are the tools good enough?
>
> Considered how many games (and I don't mean indie anymore, but 
> for example Blizzard's Heartstone) are now created in Unity 
> which uses not only GC but runs in Mono I am very skeptical of 
> anybody claiming GC is a no-go for games. - Especially- that 
> native executable is being built in case of D.

Very interesting.

> I realize AAA's have have their reasons against GC i but in 
> that case one should probably just get UE4 license anyway.
>
> Tooling is acceptable for me tbh. Coming from C++ I don't have 
> high expectations anyway. The only good debugger (for C++) is 
> VC++ and so far I'v had surprisingly good experience with 
> VisualD and mixed C++/D application. Stepping into function 
> (between language boundries!) just works. Viewing variable 
> values works properly too whether I in on *.cpp or .d file atm. 
> Overall, can't complain too much especially I am getting all 
> those goodies for free ;)
>
> Anyway, I accept that I would be an early adopter and I am OK 
> with some cons that come with it as I see more gains overall.
>
> Btw, I think D is THE language to implement gameplay. 
> Compilation times make it on par with scripting languages and 
> since it becomes compiled there are no JIT restrictions on iOS 
> for example. In our case AI will get rewritten from C++/Lua to 
> D as soon as it is practical which s not just yet unfortunately.

It's good to hear that. Maybe you could write a short article 
about that once you've moved to D. "Porting games to D" or 
something like that. With D you can develop fast due to short 
compilation times, that's important for testing and prototyping.

iOS/ARM are very important. What's the latest state of affairs? I 
know some progress has been made but it has been off my radar for 
a month or two now.

>>
>> I don't think anyone is saying C++ interop is unimportant. 
>> There are a lot of us already using the language and we don't 
>> think C++ interop is the only thing that has value. More 
>> important IMO would be releasing a compiler without a bunch of 
>> regressions. D is a lot more than a C++ replacement for 
>> Facebook or video game developers.
>
> Don't get me wrong, I too want all those issue resolved, just 
> saying for myself that (lack) of those features blocks us from 
> adopting at all. And after we're on board I suspect I will join 
> some other unhappy camp :P But for now we can't even get there.