On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 5:36 AM, Stewart Gordon<[email protected]> wrote: > Steven Schveighoffer wrote: > Simple. Once we have a complete D1 spec, major software companies will be > ready to implement D. When a major software company implements D, it'll > become more widely known to the masses. This'll also pave the way for D to > taken up by the software industry on a significant scale.
This is delusional. Major software companies aren't going to start implementing D just because the spec is finished. There's no market for it when the original compiler is given away for free. And if someone really thought there was a major market for a D compiler with fewer bugs, I don't think the holes in the spec would stop them from trying to implement it. I mean why do you think we have all this #ifdef mess in cross -platform C/C++ projects? Everyone implemented the spec slightly differently. They clearly were not deterred by the fact that they didn't understand the spec 100%. That's because there was a customer demand for a C++ compiler on their platform, so they wrote one. And they charged their customers $500 or more for it. But those days are gone. You can't make a business out of charging $500 for just a compiler anymore. If anything you've got to go into dev tools like fancy IDEs and such. But even then it's a tough market when you're talking about a niche language. But if D were to become wildly popular... that's a different story. That's what would make major software companies take notice. When customers in large numbers start asking why Major Software Company doesn't support D, or have their own D compiler, then Major Software Company will start to take interest. --bb
