what you suggest is C++ with better syntax, *NOT* a variant of D. for that look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significantly_Prettier_and_Easier_C%2B%2B_Syntax
C++ has the wrong semantics which D fixes. No sane person that moved to D would ever want to go back to C++ and its huge pile of issues. C++ implements only very basic mechanisms for OOP and even that is done poorly. Also, Your point of view about performance and GC is very much outdated and completely wrong. I will not go into GC implementation details since others did that already. All I'll say is that C++ will eventually get GC too. it was planned to be added in C++0x (the new standard that's planned for 2009) but was postponed because of lack of time and tight deadlines. to quote Wikipedia: <qoute> Transparent garbage collection C++0x will not feature transparent garbage collection directly. Instead, the C++0x standard will include features that will make it easier to implement garbage collection in C++. Full garbage collection support has been remanded to a later version of the standard or a Technical Report. </quote> in fact, if you look at the new C++ standard you'll see that they pretty much copied (poorly - see C++ delegates) most current D features. -- Yigal
