On Thursday, 23 May 2013 at 01:24:34 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
On 5/22/2013 5:07 PM, Zach the Mystic wrote:
If only there were a way to communicate, "Yes, there is a lack
of stability, but
it's for darn good reasons!" Until that way is found, there
must always be a
tension between doing the "right thing", and convincing people
it's more
"stable" than it really is.
And then there are those "I don't think we should introduce
breaking changes, and here's my list of must-have features that
break things." :-)
I can't help but think that success itself poses a problem for a
programming language. The smaller the user base, the better it
can absorb the shock, and the more loyal it is. But once you
become mainstream, now people are using your language because
they *have* to - I suspect it's these people who will demand
stability above all else, because they don't care where the
language came from or why any of the important decisions were
made. They just want to get their work done.
Therefore, seize the day! The more people use D, the harder it
will be to do the right thing - engineering-wise! But D is not
designed for a small user base. It is designed to last. Be like
the Tao!
