We are forking D

[Don Allen]

On Sunday, 7 January 2024 at 21:12:11 UTC, Lance Bachmeier wrote:
> On Sunday, 7 January 2024 at 17:47:37 UTC, monkyyy wrote:
>
>> zig will probably win the c killer race
>
> The race is over for a language like Zig that requires you to 
> learn a new syntax and do things differently. Rust has the 
> users that don't want GC, and Go has those that do. D has the 
> advantage that you can write C code as you've always done, 
> mixing in conveniences as you go. Predictions are always tough 
> when they involve the future, but it's hard to see Zig gaining 
> much traction when Rust and Go are established in that area. (I 
> haven't looked at Zig recently. Maybe things have changed. I 
> couldn't find a reason to use it when I investigated earlier.)

The first derivative of the issues count is still positive and 
you see it in practice. Every time I check in on the Zig project 
and try to use it for something real, I run into a show-stopper.

The documentation is simply awful -- not only sparse, but 
frequently inaccurate. It reminds me of BSD4.3 40 years ago -- 
motto: "it was hard to build, it should be hard to use". Running 
it on an overloaded Vax 780 made just experience just that much 
more wonderful.

Having said that, I think there is some good work being done by 
the Zig people. But my guess is that they have a long way to go. 
I'll be surprised if they make Andrew's 2025 estimate for release.