Why is D unpopular?

[Bruce Carneal]

On Sunday, 1 May 2022 at 20:39:36 UTC, Max Samukha wrote:
> On Sunday, 1 May 2022 at 08:14:34 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>
>>
>> Of interpreters that later generated native code. Not the 
>> other way around.
>
> I don't quite understand why you insist on native code. Do 
> compilers to bytecode count? There used to be a language called 
> Nemerle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemerle), which had been 
> mentioned on these forums many times, long before D got CTFE. 
> The earliest mention I found is 
> https://forum.dlang.org/post/ca56h1$2k4h$1@digitaldaemon.com. 
> It had very powerful macros, which could be used as compile 
> time functions, AST macros, and whatnot. The language is now 
> dead because it was too good for humans.
...
>
> I think Nemerle deserves a case of beer.

Does writing a compile time function require any new 
knowledge/skill or is it like writing a runtime function?  
Accurately answering "they're like any other function, use 
functions in either context and you'll be fine" means you've got 
something immediately useful to newcomers, an ultra low friction 
path to more power.

Answering "no, but we have super duper xyz which is every bit as 
powerful theoretically and should probably be preferred because 
it's hard for people to understand and qualifies you for your 
programming wizard merit badge", means you, as a language 
designer, did not understand what you could have had.

Unless I'm missing something big from the Nemerle wiki page those 
language designers did not understand what they could have had.

I'm happy to give credit where it is due but I'd advise hanging 
on to that beer in this case. :-)