Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:05:31 -0500, dfgh wrote: > Warning: this would break existing code. > > I have an idea for a completely new template syntax that is easier to > use and implement.
It looks nice, and many people already brought this topic up, the template-function unification. But some changes may be simply too much. My experience led me to belief that one should not significantly change design during a project. You can tweak, polish, cut sharp corners and drape in different colors, but you shouldn't change the basis. The problem is, you can never tell whether a particular design was wrong until you've implemented a finished product based upon that design. And you can never justify a significant design change because you end up with nothing to compare to. You have nothing to answer to those who say you shouldn't have changed anything, except "maybe." Also, if you do significantly change design, you risk ending up with a half-baked thing nobody wants to use because it's half-baked and changes too often too much. This is what happens to D2 to a certain extent, and you must be really careful now. To put this another way, when a change proposed is so significant, actually getting it into the language becomes much less a matter of proposal quality and usefulness, and much more a matter of Walter's personal opinion. I think that the fate of such proposals is to wait until somebody decides to write another language "better than D." :)
