It is the year 2020: why should I use / learn D?

[Walter Bright]

On 11/14/2018 9:22 AM, kinke wrote:
> * Sane basic types. No need to include a header for the definition of `size_t`, 
> no distinct basic types overlap (C++ long, wchar_t etc.; not 4 distinct types 
> for a byte - C++ `char`, `signed char`, `unsigned char`, and planned `utf8_t`].

It's amazing how much time goes into dealing with C++'s fluid notions of the 
sizes of those types. "unsigned long" is just awful, varying from memory model 
to memory model, from platform to platform, especially when C++ uses it for name 
mangling.

I've wasted endless hours with this, and I know what I'm doing with it. I see 
others doing it, too. Look at all the countless C++ .h files which start with 
something like:

   #include <stdint.h>

   /* ELF file format */

   typedef uint16_t Elf32_Half;
   typedef uint32_t Elf32_Word;
   typedef int32_t  Elf32_Sword;
   typedef uint32_t Elf32_Addr;
   typedef uint32_t Elf32_Off;
   typedef uint32_t elf_u8_f32;

or those windows.h "WORD" declarations. Or in phobos\etc\c\zlib\zconf.h:

   typedef unsigned char  Byte;  /* 8 bits */
   typedef unsigned int   uInt;  /* 16 bits or more */
   typedef unsigned long  uLong; /* 32 bits or more */

Every C++ project reinvents this.

Just not having to deal with "is `char` signed or unsigned? will that affect my 
existing code? does my code still work if `int` is 64 bits?" is a big win.