My Long Term Vision for the D programming language

[Timon Gehr]

On 16.11.21 22:00, Robert Schadek wrote:
> # A Long Term Vision for the D programming language
> 
> D -- The best programming language!
> 
> I imagine a DConf where you guys yell at me, not because we disagree,
> but because I'm old and forgot my hearing aid.
> 
> This is what I think needs to be done to get us there.
> 
> ## GitHub / Organisation
> ...
> 
> Github has an okay api, I bet we can replicate 99% of the features that are
> missing with very little code executed by some bots.
> ...

Why not start by synching github issues into bugzilla using those bots?

> And of course, laying out new directions and goal for the
> language and library.
> Not short term but long term e.g. ~5 years.
> Only after that work is done comes the developing.
> Having more development time left would be the measure of success for the
> leadership side.
> ...

Walter's main priority nowadays seems to be @safe memory management 
without GC and C/C++ interoperability.
Andrei's current main priority seems to be more specifically @safe 
reference counting.

> ## The Language
> 
> Get your tomatoes and eggs ready.
> 
> ### GC
> 
> There GC is here to stay, you don't do manual memory management (MMM) in a
> compiler daemon that tracks dependency.
> I don't care how smart you are, you are not that smart.

That's why Walter and Andrei want things to be @safe.

> ...
> 
> To summarize, GC and GC only.
> ...

See above. It does not seem to me like that aligns well with the goals 
of W&A.

> ...
> 
> ## Leadership
> 
> I'm writing this section as one of the last.
> This is maybe one of the most important parts, but also the hardest
> to validate.
> When reading the forum, or the github PR's I get the feeling that people 
> think
> that D is a consensus driven, meritocracy.
> That is not the case, and that is okay.
> ...

(Earlier you noted there is a low number of contributors.)

> ...
> D 27:
> 
> * Compiler daemon thing.
> 
> The work on the compiler daemon thing, will have to start before 2025.
> 

Even if there was a consensus on that, you already noted that it does 
not matter. This requires massive refactoring of the DMD code base.