language_fan wrote:
This seems more like an advertisement of D than practical new information for compiler construction. Nesting functions is the basic feature of functional languages. Moreover even procedural Algol based languages such as Pascal have always supported them, too.
But not C, C++, Java, etc., so quite a lot of programmers have little experience with them, and even less understanding.
This information is also taught in basic university level compiler courses.
I bet only a tiny fraction of programmers have taken university compiler classes. (Also, they were not covered in compiler classes I took.) Consider also that the Java JVM doesn't support static links, and last I heard the .NET IL didn't, either.
Now that I checked what wikipedia had to say to the matter, it also seemed to mention D. Apparently 'c-like syntax' plus 'advanced feature <foo>' always equals 'innovation'.
Nested functions aren't innovative; they just are apparently lacking in many other popular languages, and seem to confuse a lot of people. If you google it, you'll find there's a lot of programmer confusion about them. Hence an article as to how they work is in order.
In part 2, I'll cover innovative things D does with nested functions.
