Am 20.09.2014 06:43, schrieb Andrei Alexandrescu:
On 9/19/14, 7:20 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
On 9/19/2014 6:48 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
On 9/19/14, 6:18 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
Having a compiler switch to change the behavior of every module in
incompatible ways would be a disastrous balkanization. It has to be
done
in such a way that the ARC and the existing exceptions can coexist.
Could you please elaborate why the disaster? -- Andrei
1. Every library for D will have to come in two versions. One which
works, and the other is likely untested. This will divide the D
community in half.
I understand where you're coming from. And you're right that we're
looking at an important change - as big as -m64 vs. -m32 or porting to a
new platform. It's big. But it's needed, soon. And it would be, it seems
to me, a mistake to approach this big change as a small change that we
can sneak in.
This judgment - that RC vs. GC would balkanize the community - has
become a prejudice that is worth revisiting. Just trotting it out again
won't do.
2. RC and GC engender different styles of programming. The idea that one
can successfully switch between them with merely a compiler switch is a
fantasy. You cannot write non-trivial programs that function well and
pay no attention to how memory management is done.
I think we're at a point where we owe it to ourselves to consider
realizing the fantasy.
Andrei
This is one of the reasons why the Objective-C GC failed.
Mixing Frameworks compiled with both modes never worked properly.
--
Paulo
