On Friday, 21 January 2022 at 12:33:25 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:
### Andrei
Andrei brought up std.v2, but this is where memory fails me.
What I do recall is that there was a bit of talk about the
std.v2 namespace and how it will live alongside std, and this
came up because Robert isn't convinced the planned approach is
the right way to go about it. If Andrei or anyone else would
like to say more about what was discussed, please post
something below.
IMO having the `std` and `std.v2` namespaces exist alongside each
other *in the official D distribution* would be a mistake, and
would make the language significantly less approachable for new
users.
New users lack the knowledge to make and informed choice between
multiple versions of the standard library, and the skills and
experience necessary to manage multiple versions in a single
project. Therefore, the "out-of-the-box" experience should not
present them with such a choice, and should not expect them to
manage multiple versions unless they explicitly opt in to doing
so.
Experienced D users, on the other hand, are much better equipped
to deal with the complexities of multiple standard-library
versions, and also much more likely to *want* to do so in the
first place, since they may have existing projects that depend on
older versions. In other words, they have both the means and the
motivation to *opt in* to using multiple versions of Phobos.
The C++ standard library prioritized backwards compatibility over
good UX, and as a result is full of "legacy" traps for unwary
beginners, like [`std::auto_ptr`][1] and [`std::lock_guard`][2].
In D's standard library, we have an opportunity to learn from
this mistake and do better. We should not let that opportunity go
to waste.
(I think it would also be ideal if the namespace `std` were
reserved for the latest stable release, with `std.v1`, `std.v2`,
etc. available on an opt-in basis for users who wish to depend on
a specific major version, but this is a much less important
point.)
[1]: https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/memory/auto_ptr
[2]: https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/thread/lock_guard
