Top 3 use cases for D

[Chris Piker]

On Friday, 27 September 2024 at 18:49:27 UTC, Imperatorn wrote:
> In your opinion, what is the selling point of D, the top 3 use 
> cases where D would be a nice fit?
>
> D has struggled to find a niche (because it's so flexible?), 
> but is that also why it hasn't seen wider adoption?
>
> What do you think are the top 3 places where you think "I could 
> use D here instead of {language} because {reasons}"?

1. Avoid split language development in Python + C
2. Deploy self-contained binaries without the need for a separate 
ecosystem (Python, Java, C#)
3. Have technical problems solved by a small focused community 
instead of working in a language where you're too unimportant to 
consider (all the big players).

My major reason for trying out D in the first place was to move 
away from split language development in Python + C.  I wanted 
something with brevity of Python, the speed of C but with a 
full-featured standard library.  I didn't need a GUI, because I 
mostly write server-side processes. While searching around I 
tried Rust, D and Go and settled on D.

I had spent about 5 years as a C++ developer, and some time 
writing Java so the overall syntax felt familiar and the garbage 
collector sealed the deal. Finally as an experienced developer, I 
wanted a toolset and community that didn't preach about the "One 
Right Way" to program, but just provided support for whatever I 
was trying to do.  D's flexibility is one of it's best features 
from my point of view.

In my own personal opinion, the major draw back of D was that the 
standard library contained no GUI widgets. Yes there were 
libraries, but unlike Java Swing, there was nothing officially 
maintained and distributed as part of the core toolset. To me, 
this was a major problem and why D remained a niche language 
among work-a-day programmers. These days Javascript has taken 
over as everyone's GUI dev language, so it doesn't matter as 
much, but it certainly would have helped adoption during the 2005 
- 2015 decade.