Continuation of `Having "blessed" 3rd party libraries may make D more popular` DIP thread

[Dennis]

On Thursday, 3 July 2025 at 02:21:46 UTC, WraithGlade wrote:
> Do you know what I mean? Anyone else here been through the same 
> struggle as a programmer?
> (...)
> Perhaps other members of the D programming forum (or even just 
> of the whole programming community, independent of language) 
> have also struggled with similar issues here.

Hello,

Don't worry, this is a normal, maybe even necessary part of a 
programmer's journey. There's a talk I can recommend in its 
entirety, but the most relevant part starts at 11:07:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89bLKVvF85M&t=667s

Transcript of the slide:

> Typical programmer bottlenecks at various experience levels
> - Newbie
>   * Syntax, tooling, logic
> - Beginner
>   * Tech debt
> - Intermediate
>   * Overcorrecting for the possibility of tech debt
> - Advanced

---

> I wish I could turn back the clock to when working in any 
> programming language or system was pure joy and wonder and not 
> just some amorphous sense of looming liability and risk, but 
> here I am anyway, wishing for years that I could break that 
> cycle of stagnation.

Relatable as well. I used to just write code willy nilly, now I'm 
constantly pondering like: https://xkcd.com/1445/

> What are your thoughts on how to deal with that as individuals 
> and/or as a community?
> (...)
> Who else has struggled in these regards? Has anyone here 
> overcome such self-defeating behavior successfully before?

I'm still struggling with similar problems myself, but what 
helped me so far is just writing real software for people. I've 
written 'generic/reusable' libraries under the guise of "this is 
going to make writing my actual software so easy!", but then 
building and testing software using that library revealed 
important parts were missing, and most of what *is* in there 
didn't end up getting used.

On the other hand, when I hacked together a C to D translation 
tool for the two C libraries I was translating at that time, it 
actually [ended up being useful to 
others](https://github.com/dkorpel/glfw-d/discussions/18) as 
well! That was a real eye-opener to me.

> I want/wanted to believe in it and intended to build out my own 
> tools for both a game dev idea and an art software tool idea in 
> it (plus miscellaneous personal scripting and utility use), and 
> perhaps even a simple reusable open source GUI engine or a 
> community book eventually if all went especially well, but I am 
> not sure what to think anymore in that regard.

Don't write a game engine / GUI framework, just write the darn 
game / application. You've already said this to yourself and I 
doubt me saying it is making a difference, but I don't know what 
else to say. 🙂 In addition, perhaps join a game jam. A big one 
coming up is the [GMTK Game Jam 
2025](https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2025). I always get a rush of 
productivity and motivation in those 2-4 days, although 
admittedly, I lose most of that momentum after the jam is over 
unfortunately.

> In particular, it still remains unclear whether the language 
> and library ecosystem is a stable base to build upon for real 
> software, which remains the central concern.
>
> I'm tired of the churn and feeling of always risking building 
> on quicksand. I want what I make to last.

There's indeed a risk factor when using a more niche language 
like D instead of a more mainstream language. But a lot of your 
software robustness comes from how you choose to write it. If 
your code is full of `mixin` / `__traits` etc., then you are 
highly dependent on the D compiler and its development. But 
simple code like `if (x > 0) x -= 2;` has been stable across 
decades in multiple languages.

I had my doubts about D as well when I chose it as my 'next' 
language in 2018, but figured that since I considered using C, 
and that D has C's features and compiler backends, I could always 
transition back to C without too much hassly if necessary.

> Anyway, I hope the best for everyone for our future, myself 
> included.

The same, good luck!