Article calls D "irrelevant"

[H. S. Teoh]

On Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 04:13:02PM +0000, Serg Gini via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Wednesday, 25 February 2026 at 15:33:44 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 08:53:33AM +0000, Mike Parker via Digitalmars-d
> > wrote: [...]
> > > I will never understand this thinking that a language has to be in
> > > the top N languages or else it's dead/irrelevant/pointless/etc.
> > 
> > +100, me too!  I will never understand why some people are so
> > insecure that their evaluation of things depends on others'
> > acceptance of them.
> 
> Really? I always thought that this is super obvious.
> This is the same as with "natural languages" - if nobody speaks the
> language, the language is dying. If the language has small people who
> speak the language - it is hard to evolve.

Latin has been a "dead" language as long as I can remember, but believe
it or not, people still understand it.

D is still thriving in its own community, and is nowhere close to the
state of Latin.


> For example, now for ARM we had LDC/GDC, but for DMD we had issues..

I almost never use DMD except during development of individual modules
because of the fast turnaround times.  For just about everything else I
use LDC.  Besides compile speeds, LDC/GDC codegen is far superior to
DMD, to the point these days I don't even bother looking at DMD output.
For anything performance-related I don't even think about using DMD.


> Let's say next year RISC-V will become super popular.. it will be
> another issue.

So what?  I don't care to chase the next popular trend.  I'm
pathologically skeptical of new bandwagons.  Like Walter once said,

	I've been around long enough to have seen an endless parade of
	magic new techniques du jour, most of which purport to remove
	the necessity of thought about your programming problem.  In the
	end they wind up contributing one or two pieces to the
	collective wisdom, and fade away in the rearview mirror.
	-- Walter Bright


> What if the next type of XPU(not CPU or even TPU) will be soo
> different, that it will be supported only by new thing? no GCC and no
> LLVM. For example, only MLIR.

So what?  There's enough people invested into LLVM that it's only a
matter of time before there will be support.

If you feel the urgency to be on top of the latest trend, then maybe
what you want is really one of the more popular languages. :-P

Me -- I'm looking for something long-term that will last for a long time
in spite of the popular trends of the day.  I couldn't care less about
the latest hype and "hot" trends.  They all eventually cool down and
fade away anyway.


> Same is applicable for library support.

What libraries do you have in mind?  My D projects have had no problem
interfacing with C libraries.  D's C-compatibility is commendable.


> You will need significant resources to build such support. Of course
> our GDC and LDC maintainers are real hackers who probably will be able
> to do that, but it will be hard.

What kind of support are we talking about here?  As I said, I've not had
major obstacles interfacing with C libraries.  C++ template libraries
are a different beast, but (1) I couldn't care less about going back to
the ugly mess that is C++ templates, and (2) C is still the standard
cross-language library API, like it or not, and D works just fine with
that.  You aren't gonna see, for example, Rust or Java support for
interfacing with C++ template libraries, but native C library support is
a thing with almost every "popular" language out there.  Meaning that
D's C library support is adequate.  ImportC is supposed to make that
even easier, but so far I haven't had to try that yet -- my C libraries
work just fine with ad hoc extern(C) declarations on an as-needed basis.


> And when you have a lot of "speakers" it is easier to evolve and adopt
> to a constantly changing world.

You're talking to the wrong person then. :-D  I don't care about chasing
the latest trends, and am completely indifferent to what's hot or what's
"up and coming".


> Getting back to natural languages this is the issue of small nations.
> People are learning:
> 1) English/Spanish - because they are the biggest populations
> 2) Chinese - good potential for future
> 3) Large groups like Italian, French, German, Korean, Japanese, etc
> 4) You are probably the linguist of specific region so you are study
> the language for research

Why should I care who's learning what language?  I learn whatever
language interests me, who cares if nobody else is interested in it.
Learning a rare language can be a gift -- you become the only one in
your circle to know that language, and that can be a powerful leverage.


> But do you know many people who are learning the languages of Vanuatu
> or Micronesia?

For one thing, I would, if I had the time/energy.  Learning languages
opens new borders and enlarges your worldview.  I highly recommend it --
I speak 5 languages and am hoping to pick up a 6th sometime in this
lifetime -- hopefully in a new language family completely alien to me.
It's a very broadening experience.


T

-- 
Что любишь - тем станешь.