Why do C++ programmers are not interested in D?

[JN]

On Tuesday, 19 November 2019 at 13:01:30 UTC, Newbie2019 wrote:
> I suggest D should add a grave yard page with dead projects on 
> this site.

This already exists, kind of: http://dsource.org/projects/


Jokes aside, I think most C++ programmers who could have made the 
switch away from it, did that long time ago, whether to Go, Java, 
C# or something else.

As for why they don't switch to D, it's mostly because it's not 
popular. The reason they might be switching to Rust isn't because 
they desire borrow checker or anything like that, most people 
don't care about that. But it's a language that got many things 
right and comes with great defaults. One package manager, one way 
to install, one compiler. On top of that it has solid base 
libraries, upon which people write higher level constructs. Also, 
it has a lot of popularity right now, so people can switch having 
confidence that the bug reports will be fixed quickly and they 
can find help whenever needed.

Sure, D has a lot of these features too. But for a C++ 
programmer, many of those features they see first time and it's 
amazing. Package managers never took hold in C++ world, whether 
it's vkpkg, conan, it's all niche. But in D, Rust, etc. people 
can't live without it.