On Friday, 8 July 2016 at 16:08:42 UTC, bachmeier wrote:
On Friday, 8 July 2016 at 12:46:03 UTC, Chris wrote:
As for GC, it's hard to tell. When D was actually (not
hypothetically) created, GC was _the_ big thing. Java had just
taken off, people were pissed off with C/C++, programming and
coding was becoming more and more common. Not having GC might
actually have been a drawback back in the day. People would
have complained that "Ah, D is like C++, no automatic memory
management, I might as well stick to C++ or go for Java!" So
no, I think D is where it is, because things are like they
are, and "what if" discussions are useless. D has to keep on
keeping on, there's no magic.
Yep. If you're going to pick any feature to use to sell a new
language, lack of GC is the worst. The only ones that care (and
it's a small percentage) are the ones that are least likely to
switch due to their existing tools, libraries, and knowledge.
True. The last sentence is something to bear in mind whenever we
discuss attracting more people. If someone is really into C++
bare metal micro-optimization kinda stuff, we won't win him/her
over with "no GC". As you said, they're the least likely to
switch for said reasons. To be able to opt out of GC is still
important, but it's not that we will attract thousands and
thousands of new users because of that.
