On Sunday, 21 December 2014 at 10:26:45 UTC, Russel Winder via
Digitalmars-d wrote:
D was started as a better C++. Technically that may be true,
but it
has failed to gain traction in the market. Most C++ people
will move
to C++14 rather than D. Most C people will move to Go rather
than C++
or D.
These two developments don't necessarily mean much for D. C/C++
devs are not going to give up their big investments in their
existing source and knowledge unless D presents some big wins,
real world success like Sociomantic. Until then, it's more
likely that D's traction will come from the new and disaffected.
If they succeed, C/C++ devs will copy them and switch over, or
their bosses will make them. ;)
It doesn't matter that Go may have arrived on a wave of hype,
the
language appealed to some high profile people who did things
with it
and showed how much better it was than the alternatives. For
these
people the alternatives were C and C++. D and Rust are just not
in the
game, though Rust when it gets to 1.0 will have an opportunity.
Go
now has street cred. The biggest angst is now about whether
Google
will pull their funding of the core team.
---snip---
So D is battling against C++14, Go and Rust for market share,
and to
be honest is failing. This is partly because D is an old
language that
never caught on, but also because it has a lack of "new"
marketing and
a path to traction. Interminable discussion in these mailing
lists
achieves nothing. Trying to tell C and C++ folk they should
change to D
achieves nothing. Having a reputation for internal angst and a
bad
garbage collector achieves huge negative waves. A language 11
years
old and still in the same "breaking change" situation as Rust,
yet
claiming to be production ready isn't helping. Conversely Dub
helps
the D cause, code.dlang.org helps the D cause.
What D needs though is some high profile people doing high
profile
projects to create a sense of newness. This is the lesson D
needs to
take from Go and Rust. Make use of hype rather than just
complaining
about it. Set situations up that can be hyped. Hype is after
all just
over-enthusiastic marketing.
I don't think "high profile people" matter, but yes, D will only
succeed if it can generate some successful killer apps, ie what
you call "high profile projects," though I'd add the qualifier of
actually making money not just getting big investment.
But in the meantime, what you label "interminable discussion" is
often people trying to figure out how to make D better in the
interim. Anytime you're working with other people, you need to
talk to them first before you go do stuff. Perhaps many here
talk too much and don't contribute much code, granted, but a lot
of it is enthusiasts putting forth their ideas and opinions for
everyone else to chew on, which can have real value. Nothing
wrong with "internal angst," as quality only comes from such
criticism and reflection, though like anything else, it can be
overdone.
Sure, actual software like dub often helps more, but that often
starts with a discussion.
So what is the D USP on which hype can be hung?
Native efficiency combined with expressiveness and ease of use,
as the front page says. That's too general-purpose to just go
build some specialized app like docker, but in the long run may
lead to much bigger wins.
