>> Uh... how helping fix compiler bugs? Could we help with that? I feel that's >> *much* more important than benchmarking, for instance, since it doesn't make sense to benchmark something if it has bugs. :\
> I have the same feeling. I'd like to see such projects. But I believe > students are more likely to pick feature-oriented projects. The stuff that sounds cool. Compare: I implemented a Garbage Collector for D that improved performance dramatically vs. I fixed bugs in the compiler. I do not think that fixing bugs is less demanding. Actually I do believe it's more difficult and it is fun. You know the feeling, when you finally understand what's the cause of the problem and when you know how to fix it properly. Do you have an idea for packaging fixing bugs in a way that makes it look more interesting? 100% agree. :) I'm a student myself and I'm really considering GSoC for D, but from my own perspective I'd only do it if I could fix bugs in the compiler -- *that* is what I truly enjoy doing (since I really want to help D become more popular), and _not_ timing the application's performance. Benchmarking would just be like mopping the floor for me... it's important in its own right, but I'm not sure if college students would actually enjoy doing it; I certainly wouldn't. (Personally, I think *THE* most important factor that's hindering the adoption of D are the compiler bugs, _not_ performance. If people can't write correct code, they wouldn't even give a second thought to optimizations; I think putting workforce toward optimization is a bit premature at this moment.)
