What do you think would be the key factors to drive mass adoption of D?

[GrimMaple]

Tools should solve problems. About 10 years ago, D had real edge
because it offered benefits that other languages didn't: it was
(as far as I'm concerned) the only natively compiled language
with GC and direct interfacing with C/C++. Personally, I came to
D from C++, wanting C++ "speed" and C# "usability". D offered
that to a lot of extents, and I hoped that it would improve on
those aspects. FF 10 years from that and:

* We have `rust`, which slowly takes over the low-level stuff
with its clever borrow checker (what we feel about it is 
unimportant)
* People added NativeAOT to C# which not only allows to build 
native(!)
linux/windows code, but also allows interfacing with C by either
P/Invoke, either linking in a C .lib file directly into the code.
(I couldn't believe it myself, but it's doable, and doable easily)
* We have new langs pop up, like Zig or Carbon (where did it go 
btw?)
that try to lift "interfacing with C/C++" part and, as I heard, 
do it well.

This brings me to a reasonable conclusion: why would I keep using 
D
when C# does everything, and even more?

That being said,

On Thursday, 22 January 2026 at 00:57:04 UTC, MacAsm wrote:
> -   A truly ****batteries-included IDE****

That is my biggest pain point so far with D - it's painfully 
difficult
to go to code.d after working on some C# WebAPI. The difference 
is night
and day.

> -   For corporate/enterprise environments in particular: do you 
> think a modern ****GUI designer**** (visual drag-and-drop) 
> would help a lot?

That kinda exists already, just needs further adoption (dlangui)

> -   Alternatively — maybe a ****declarative UI language**** 
> with live preview (something XAML-like, or even better: 
> immediate hot-reload / live-reloading of UI + logic) would be 
> more powerful and future-proof than a classic designer?

That kinda exists already, just needs further adoption (dlangui)

> -   Strong ****corporate backing**** (big companies using + 
> sponsoring it)

I think that corporate backing might actually do more harm, since
it will dictate where the language goes based on money input (and
not necessarily helping the adoption)

> -   Way more high-quality ****tutorials****, beginner-friendly 
> learning paths, and real-world project examples

Yes, I think D should spend more effort into promoting existing D 
projects,
and focus on getting the top-100 libs of dub.pm into phobos, or 
at least
just shipping them with the compiler as a "proposed solution" 
(OpenD does
this btw)

> -   Active ****evangelists****, conference talks, YouTube 
> content, and community momentum

Evangelists probably do more harm than good; finished usable 
projects
quietly do more to spread adoption (I think)

> What else do you see as important missing pieces?

I think D was fine as it was in around 2018~2020, and all it 
needed was
more focus on IDE support, third party libraries, and other QoL 
stuff.