C is Brittle D is Plastic

[Dennis]

On Monday, 30 March 2026 at 12:31:37 UTC, matheus wrote:
> It's hard to
> compare with more flexible language today, so it's look like 
> brittle, but at the same time is less complex than newer 
> languages. Coming from C, sometimes I get lost reading new 
> languages code and people making simple things more complex.

I can relate. When reading D code, code often looks 
over-engineered. For example by aggressively deduplicating code 
using a string mixin and CTFE instead of normal functions.

```D
mixin(TraceHook!("Tarr", "_d_arrayappendcTX"));
```

https://github.com/dlang/dmd/blob/371c7a5e3ef9c84d84bea869e2476ad050fbc916/druntime/src/core/internal/array/appending.d#L125

---

On the other hand, most C code bases I find come with their own 
macro language to make up for C lacking the most basic 
necessities. For example:

https://github.com/EpicGamesExt/raddebugger/blob/7021d6056a8058b34e7b026e728b5f44346be1a1/src/base/base_core.h#L412

```C
#define ArrayCount(a) (sizeof(a) / sizeof((a)[0]))

//...

typedef uint32_t U32;
typedef uint64_t U64;

//...

global U64 max_U64 = 0xffffffffffffffffull;

//...

#define DeferLoop(begin, end)        for(int _i_ = ((begin), 0); 
!_i_; _i_ += 1, (end))
#define DeferLoopChecked(begin, end) for(int _i_ = 2 * !(begin); 
(_i_ == 2 ? ((end), 0) : !_i_); _i_ += 1, (end))

#define EachIndex(it, count) (U64 it = 0; it < (count); it += 1)
#define EachElement(it, array) (U64 it = 0; it < 
ArrayCount(array); it += 1)
#define EachEnumVal(type, it) (type it = (type)0; it < 
type##_COUNT; it = (type)(it+1))
#define EachNonZeroEnumVal(type, it) (type it = (type)1; it < 
type##_COUNT; it = (type)(it+1))
#define EachInRange(it, range) (U64 it = (range).min; it < 
(range).max; it += 1)
#define EachNode(it, T, first) (T *it = first; it != 0; it = 
it->next)
#define EachBit(it, flags) (U64 (_i_) = (flags), it = (flags) & 
-(flags); (_i_) != 0; (_i_) &= ((_i_) - 1), it = (flags) & 
-(flags))

```

Not looking so simple anymore :-)

I'm glad D users at least use standard `.length`, `ulong.max` and 
`foreach` instead of everyone inventing their own versions of 
them.