does D already have too many language features ?

[Abdulhaq]

On Sunday, 14 April 2019 at 06:01:23 UTC, Nick Sabalausky 
(Abscissa) wrote:

> Yup! Two basic truths are relevant here:
>
> A: Possessing a tool doesn't mean you have to use it, or even 
> know how to use it. But lacking a tool GUARANTEES that you 
> CAN'T use it.
>

When we're talking about *using* features in a clean mature 
language with orthogonal features then yes, the language user 
really can take them or leave them.

But on the language compiler side, when a feature needs changing 
or extending, or a new feature needs to be added, then the 
compiler engineer has to consider every existent feature, 
geometrically combined with n other features, in who knows how 
many possible contexts, and convince herself that they can all be 
made to continue to work the way the language user expects. As 
the number of existent features goes up, the difficulty of this 
process grows at least geometrically, and you end up with a 
situation where very few people have the skill, intelligence, 
time and inclination to do the work and continue to maintain it. 
Ultimately it could even reach a point where making it 'whole' is 
practically impossible (I'm in no way referring to D here, just 
recognising the risk to uncontained feature growth).

> B: Problems have inherent complexity. This complexity can 
> either be abstracted away by your language (or lib) or manifest 
> in your code - your choice.
>