On Saturday, 31 October 2015 at 05:25:06 UTC, ref2401 wrote:
On Friday, 30 October 2015 at 10:35:03 UTC, Laeeth Isharc wrote:
I'm writing a talk for codemesh on the use of D in finance.
I want to start by addressing the good reasons not to use D.
(We all know what the bad ones are). I don't want to get into
a discussion here on them, but just wanted to make sure I
cover them so I represent the state of affairs correctly.
So far what comes to mind: heavy GUI stuff (so far user
interface code is not what it could be); cases where you want
to write quick one-off scripts that need to use a bunch of
different libraries not yet available in D and where it
doesn't make sense to wrap or port them; where you have a lot
of code in another language (especially non C, non Python) and
defining an interface is not so easy; where you have many
inexperienced programmers and they need to be productive very
quickly.
Any other thoughts?
I'd suggest enterprise software because many necessary
libraries and tools do not exist in D ecosystem. Though you've
already named these reasons.
Thank you very much to every one who has replied on this thread,
and my apologies for not engaging - just haven't had time. But I
have read them all and it will help me clarify what I say.
Incidentally, there is enterprise and enterprise. What's
necessary really depends on what you're trying to do. For me, so
far, I don't see the lack of libraries as a major problem. How
much work really is it to port some bindings? Not much in
relation to the larger goal. I've done that myself for many of
them I wanted so far, because I wanted to get to know the tools I
was working with and you can't delegate learning. In coming
months others will be helping me, which will allow me to spend a
bit more time and energy on the investment aspect and the bigger
picture.
That's not only been my perspective, but also that of other
financial adopters of languages perceived as niche - for example,
Jane Street with ocaml.
A benefit of the D community that also resonates with what Yaron
Minsky at Jane Street says about ocaml is that there are some
very good programmers here (and the less experienced ones learn
from the more experienced ones, and the reason that's possible is
the very thing that turns off more corporate sorts of people -
it's a small community so people have more time and energy to
spend). You couldn't buy for any price what people I have talked
to have learnt by becoming language contributors...
Laeeth.
