Quora: Why hasn't D started to replace C++?

[John Gabriele]

On Wednesday, 7 February 2018 at 21:02:11 UTC, data pulverizer 
wrote:
> On Tuesday, 30 January 2018 at 20:45:44 UTC, Andrei 
> Alexandrescu wrote:
>> https://www.quora.com/Why-hasnt-D-started-to-replace-C++
>>
>> Andrei
>
> The Betamax Problem

I don't think the analogy holds. With VHS and betamax, you just 
put in the tape and watch your movie. Most people didn't care 
very much what the name on the machine said --- both types of 
machines had the same buttons.

In contrast to that, programmers are very particular about the 
languages they use (which includes tooling, community, module 
repos, available books).

> An important question is what problem set does D solve? It's 
> very hard to sell a language to industry without convincingly 
> answering that question. If you are selling them a 'better' 
> language - that's a tougher sell. If you are selling a solution 
> to a particular problem set - you stand better a chance.

My impression is that the object is not necessarily to sell D to 
industry, but rather to sell it to developers. Developers choose 
what they want to learn and use at home and in side projects. 
Then at work some tools here and there get written in it. Then 
some customer-facing projects. Before you know it, it's been 
"sold to industry".

I think, as of last year, D has upped its sales (to developers) 
game:

   * fully open-sourced dmd

   * GDC slated for inclusion into GCC

   * there's been talk of adding some markdown features to ddoc. 
Cosmetic, yes; sells D well to developers, emphatically yes.

I'm not sure how long dub has been around, but having an easy to 
use CPAN-alike (online module repo) is HUGE. Dub is great for 
sales. The better dub and the repo gets, the more attractive D 
gets.