Is D really that bad?

[Paulo Pinto]

On Friday, 28 October 2022 at 09:51:04 UTC, Imperatorn wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> Just wanted to remind you that, D maybe isn't that bad.
>
> We're very good at bashing our own language, but we should also 
> remember sometimes what it has given us.
>
> I have spent the last months going through other languages, and 
> I can say, the grass is always not so much greener on the other 
> side.
>
> Yes, there are more mature languages.
> Yes, there are languages with better ecosystems.
>
> But, just as an example - Zig - which is getting attention, is 
> according to the community itself (including its creator) not 
> in 1.0 until about 2025.
>
> And still people use it, and might even think it's better than 
> D.
>
> Some information from their community (not my words)
> It does **not** have a standardized package manager and build 
> system.
> It does **not** have an official registry of packages.
> It **is** unstable.
> It should **not** be used in production (actively advised 
> against).
> It changes so often that you can not rely on code to work even 
> in 1 month from now.
> etc
>
> And still, people still think Zig is better for some reason.
>
> Yes, D has it's flaws, true. But it's far from unfixable? Or is 
> that what people believe?
>
> Forget about Jai, Odin, Beef and all those languages.
>
> Go - Welcome rheumatism 👴
> Rust - Welcome brain tumor from not even being able to 
> prototype something in less than 2 years 😩
> C++ - Welcome to hell 🔥
> ...
>
> The only real language out there that is close to what D 
> is/could be is Nim and I respect it.
> But, its syntax is not that kind to those who loved the curly 
> braces.
>
> All I'm saying is - maybe it's best if we just fix D?
>
> There is some valid criticism, like the risk for attribute soup 
> etc. But maybe it's fixable?
>
> Remember what D gives you in terms of UFCS, CTFE, 
> metaprogramming, performance, package manager, prototyping, 
> inline assembly, 3 compilers for different use cases etc.
>
> Is D really that bad?

The language itself isn't bad, it actually quite alright, when I 
bough Andrei's book, I thought to have found a modern version of 
Modula-3 and Delphi.

However in all these years, the direction was never clear, and 
its use at Facebook and Remedy didn't do much to help it grow 
adoption.

Nowadays although D the language is quite nice, for my line of 
work, the ongoing improvements in Java and C# languages for low 
level coding + AOT + ecosystem, mean that in no way I would be 
able to convince my peers to use D.

On top of that, for better or worse, Go and Rust are also 
creeping in into my line of work, as we are adopting frameworks 
written in those languages, making it even harder to try to 
advocate for D.

So for me, D remains one of the languages that I have fun doing 
hobby coding.