Thanks for posting this. You're right that it is easy to lose perspective.
I agree that the GC phobia is way, WAY, overblown for practical programming. For
example, Warp uses the GC, but only for things like initialization, where perf
doesn't matter, and for permanent data structures. It doesn't use it on the fast
path, and so Warp keeps the convenience and safety of GC without the perf hit.
This was not hard to do.
I understand that Sociomantic does something similar to good effect.
GC phobia is a convenient excuse for people to not use D, people who may have
different actual reasons that they don't express for various reasons or may not
even realize.
For example, in the 80's, a friend of mine talked with a C++ programmer who
fervently and passionately argued that compiler speed was the most important
attribute. My friend says no, compile speed is at the bottom of the list of what
the programmer care about. Shocked, the programmer asked WTF was he talking
about? My friend said "You use Microsoft C++, which is the slowest compiler by a
factor of 4. What you actually care about is branding, not speed." And the
programmer eventually admitted he was right.
But we still need an answer to the people who believe that GC is the touch of
death, that the GC is a troll hiding under a bridge that will pop out at any
moment and destroy their program.
