C is Brittle D is Plastic

[Walter Bright]

On 3/30/2026 7:23 AM, Dennis wrote:
> I'm glad D users at least use standard `.length`, `ulong.max` and `foreach` 
> instead of everyone inventing their own versions of them.

The motivation for D's `debug` statements and declarations was a Microsoft 
manager's lament to me that every C team had a different standard on how to mark 
debug code. This made it very tedious to share code. `debug` also turns off 
safety checks, so one can insert whatever is needed to debug the code.

Standardizing common things turns out to be a big deal.

(It's a rite of passage for every C programmer to develop their own, unique 
string package. Gawd knows I've probably coded up a couple dozen of them.)