On Wednesday, 16 September 2015 at 14:40:26 UTC, Bruno Medeiros
wrote:
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"...
I find this assessment inaccurate. In my own experience, I have
come to see Walter as Dr. No (in a good sense!) in that he has
said no to a great many feature requests over the years. The
instances where a feature was implemented that took the community
by surprise have been rare indeed. And even then, we are not
privy to the support requests and other discussions that Walter
has with the businesses using D. I'm confident that what goes on
in his head when deciding to pursue a change or enhancement has
little to do with willy-nilly complaints by C++ users.
