On Monday, 2 February 2015 at 05:44:46 UTC, ketmar wrote:
i agree with you, but it's really too late to redesign. :-( it's not about "code breaking", people just will not join D3 (or something) developement at this stage.
I don't agree. D does not have a significant set of libraries that developers depend on and also not a large installed base.
What prevents Python3 adoption is the massive amount of Python2 libraries and a perception that you loose more than you gain from switching. But people are switching to Python3... and to C++14... and to Swift... and to Go... When the installed base moves, projects move. Large installed base -> slow moving. No installed base -> free to move.
especially if Walter and Andrei will not join (and i doubt they will).
I think you overestimate the importance of that. It does not matter who uses D today. The crux is to appeal to those who do not use it, but hacking on it does not fix it for those who have left.
Based on what people write in the forums it looks like D now appeals more to newbies coming from scripting languages and VM languages than those coming from low level C/C++. That might turn out to be a very risky market where people switch easily...
