Sometimes I idly wonder what would have happened if D were
available in the 80's. Sort of like if you put a modern car for
sale in the 1960's.
Sure, but that violates causality and means nothing. Instead,
lets go into the future, which we can do(with our minds at
least), and see what D is(can be) and then bring that in to the
present(which is the future, because tomorrow becomes today).
I see D is the singular greatest language man has seen since
2025. No one even bothers writing or studying compilers any more
because D is the bee's knee's. The reason people create something
new is because the old isn't working for them. Let's make D work
for everyone instead of the few anointed.
20. I hope the D community can come together at some point and
work towards a
common goal that will benefit humanity. It's a mini-cosmos of
what is going on
in the world today. Everyone is in it for themselves and they
don't realize the
big picture and how every little thing they do has an enormous
impact on the
human species. We aren't doing this stuff for fun, we do it
to make a better
life for ourselves, which means we also have to do it for
everyone else(because
we are all in it together).
I think we do remarkably well considering that D is an effort
by self-motivated enthusiasts, not by bored people working on
it just because they're paid to.
Yes, but that is an excuse not to do better. It leads to
laziness, lack of focus, disorganization, weakness, atrophy, and
eventually death(it is the way of life).
You obviously spent nearly a life creating D. Do you want to see
it die out like the dodo? D is your brain child and you gave it a
great beginning, but I see it's mid life as pointing towards an
untimely death. It's hard to create something great in the first
place, but it takes more work to keep it their.
Have you read Christopher Alexander's `A Pattern Language`? It
applies not only to architecture, computer programming,
compilers, etc but life itself. I'd like to see D live because
all the alternatives are substandard.
D needs leadership, specific goals, and an organizational
structure. A plan of action to achieve these as soon as possible.
If we were in a dessert without water, would we want to find
water as soon as possible or take our time?
D's lackadaisical approach leads to lackadaisical results. There
is an abundance of free labor trying to make it work, but it is
inefficient and usually requires highly motivated and intelligent
individuals to add to D. Instead, how about a more efficient
approach that maximizes leverage?
The top of the organization structure, the most intelligent,
motivated, and dedicated create the goals and structures that
will knowingly lead to the best results.
e.g.(just a simple off the cuff type of breakdown)
Goals:
The D language must be robust, capable of all the desirable
behaviors that everyone expects such as
intelligibility(readable), efficiency(no code duplication),
coherently implementable(no piecemeal implementations),
thoroughly documented, etc.
The D compiler must be robust, efficient, cleanly
implementable, stable, easily maintainable, extensible,
expandable, usable, platform agnostic/independence(not the
binary, the core design), etc.
The D library must be stable, efficient, coherent,
logical, nested/hierarchical, platform agnostic/independent.
Support a variety of usages(Gui, Graphics, Games, Devices, core,
systems, etc...)
The D tools must be stable, effective, specific,
organized, etc.
The D IDE must be stable, effective, friendly, increase
efficiency as best as possible for the user. It should work to
increase the productivity on all levels of the D regime since the
IDE is the portal in to the D world. Hence, it can include forum
connections, bug reporting, organizational contribution
interfacing, etc.
etc...
Everything must work together in a cohesive way. The only way
this can happen is if it is design that way from the get go.
D has some/many of these things. But it is due to people with
different ideas of the goal(since it hasn't been laid out). When
the goal is understand, it is generally very easy for anyone to
accomplish it. When it is not, don't expect the goal to be
reached.
Once the goal has been well defined, it can be broken down into
parts and each part tackled by individuals. A program could be
written to help manage the complexities and make it efficient for
users to help tackle. This might be difficult to do initially but
will pay off in the long run. If designed properly it could be
integrated or built in to the IDE. Everything should be modular
as much as possible. Any changes at any point in the goals(design
change) effects all changes further down the structure. As the
structure becomes larger, the weaknesses show through and the
ripples in the space time continuum can lead to a total
collapse(humpty dumpty still exists, he's just in a lot of pieces
and no one cares about him any more).
Regardless, I'm sure you know about all this type of stuff. It's
more about the drive to implement it. I personally would like to
see a whole knew paradigm shift in programming. Something
involving direct brain to computer interfacing... unfortunately I
need D to get their.
...Anyways, don't take my complaints too harshly. I realize it's
a work in progress. I'm trying to `inspire`(ok, maybe not the
best word) you to grow some balls(or bigger balls) and lead the
way. D is your child, it's ultimately up to you to make it grow
in to the person(or, uh, the language/compiler tool set) that you
desire it to be. If you can't do it on your own(too old and
tired, lack of motivation, lack of time, etc) find the people you
need to make it happen then let them do it and you can sit back
and crack the whip every once in a while, while you sip on your
latte.
The DeLorean won't build itself and someone has to make/find the
flux capacitor if it's going to work.
Maybe go talk to Microsoft and see if they will fund you? Tell
Trump you'll vote for him if he supports the D foundation!
