On 02/09/2015 19:58, Walter Bright wrote:
On 8/29/2015 12:37 PM, Laeeth Isharc wrote:
In my experience you can deliver
everything people say they want, and then find it isn't that at all.
That's so true. My favorite anecdote on that was back in the 1990's. A
friend of mine said that what he and the world really needs was a Java
native compiler. It'd be worth a fortune!
I told him that I had that idea a while back, and had implemented one
for Symantec. I could get him a copy that day.
He changed the subject.
I have many, many similar stories.
I also have many complementary stories - implementing things that people
laugh at me for doing, that turn out to be crucial. We can start with
the laundry list of D features that C++ is rushing to adopt :-)
Yes, and this I think is demonstrative of a very important
consideration: if someone says they want X (and they are not paying
upfront for it), then it is crucial for *you* to be able to figure out
if that person or group actually wants X or not.
If someone spends time building a product or feature that turns out
people don't want... the failure is on that someone.
And on this aspect I think the development of D does very poorly. Often
people clamored for a feature or change (whether people in the D
community, or the C++ one), and Walter you went ahead and did it,
regardless of whether it will actually increase D usage in the long run.
You are prone to this, given your nature to please people who ask for
things, or to prove people wrong (as you yourself admitted).
I apologize for not remembering any example at the moment, but I know
there was quite a few, especially many years back. It usually went like
this:
C++ community guy: "D is crap, it's not gonna be used without X"
*some time later*
Walter: "Ok, I've now implemented X in D!"
the same C++ community guy: either finds another feature or change to
complain about (repeat), or goes silent, or goes "meh, D is still not good"
Me and other people from D community: "ok... now we have a new
half-baked functionality in D, adding complexity for little value, and
put here only to please people that are extremely unlikely to ever be
using D whatever any case"...
--
Bruno Medeiros
https://twitter.com/brunodomedeiros
