Andrei: > FWIW I just posted a response to a question asking for a comparison > between Clay and D2. > > http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/es2jx/clay_programming_language_wiki/
Just few comments: > The docs offer very little on Clay's module system (which is rock solid in > D2). D2 module system may be fixed, but currently it's not even bread-solid. The Clay syntax for imports is more similar to what I have desired for D (but that () syntax is not so good): import foo.bar; // Imports module foo.bar as a qualified path // use "foo.bar.bas" to access foo.bar member bas import foo.bar as bar; // Imports module foo.bar with alias bar // use "bar.bas" to access foo.bar member bas import foo.bar.(bas); // Imports member bas from module foo.bar // use "bas" to access foo.bar member bas import foo.bar.(bas as fooBarBas) // Imports member bas with alias fooBarBas import foo.bar.*; // Imports all members from module foo.bar I don't know about Modula3 module system, I will search info about it. >Clay mentions multiple dispatch as a major feature. Based on extensive >experience in the topic I believe that that's a waste of time. Modern C++ >Design has an extensive chapter on multiple dispatch, and I can vouch next to >nobody uses it in the real world. Sure, it's nice to have, but its actual >applicability is limited to shape collision testing and a few toy examples.< I think double dispatch is enough, it cover most cases and keeps both compiler complexity low enough. If you put double dispatch with a nice syntax in D then maybe people will use it. There are many things that people in other languages use that C++ programmers don't use because using it in C++ is ugly, a pain, unsafe, etc. The visitor pattern is used enough in Java (Scala too was designed to solve this problem). Bye, bearophile
