local import hijacking

[tsbockman via Digitalmars-d]

On Friday, 15 January 2016 at 08:12:03 UTC, Russel Winder wrote:
> "several versions behind" might be a better way if putting 
> this. The release cycles of DMD (basically unconstrained),
> LDC (basically unconstrained), and GDC (heavily constrained),
> mean that "out of date" is a bad marketing phrase.

I wasn't trying to market D; I was simply offering my advice to 
the OP.

I think D is a fantastic language, but I'm not going to downplay 
what I perceive to be its shortcomings.

> I find this the wrong view of progress, yet one that remains 
> embedded in far too many organizations. It comes in two parts:
>
> 1. If a product has changed at all in the last six months, 
> other than trivial bug fixes, it isn't stable enough to use in 
> production.
>
> 2. Once we have stuff out in production, nothing may be changed 
> until end of life.
>
> Clearly the opposite extreme of "we must use the very latest of 
> every early-access version we can get out hands on" is equally 
> dangerous in production. There is a middle ground. Keep 
> everything as up to date with formally released versions as 
> possible, taking on a continuous change and evolution strategy.
>
> In this mindset D is certainly stable enough for production, it 
> is not beta software. DMD is the playground compiler, GDC the 
> conservative but solid one, and LDC the core production tool.

That is not my mindset.

I consider D beta-quality because whenever I program in D, I 
encounter bugs (both new and old) in the compiler and/or standard 
library on almost a daily basis. This has not been my experience 
with other languages that have more money behind them, like Java 
(never hit a bug in my life, that I'm aware of), C# (once?), or 
C++ (so byzantine that I'm not sure I would notice - that's why I 
prefer D :-) ).

None of the bugs I've hit recently has been too difficult to 
diagnose and work around, which is why I no longer consider D 
alpha-quality. I, personally, would be comfortable using D in 
production - but that's because I have a high tolerance for the 
kinds of minor issues beta software brings with it; not everyone 
does.

And to be clear - I think GDC is awesome. But I also think that 
someone with a low tolerance for issues like the one the OP 
complained about will be happier using DMD or LDC, as I find the 
newer front-ends noticeably less buggy in day-to-day use.

Horses for courses.