On 9/17/11 4:17 CDT, Xavier wrote:
Anyway, you can talk until you are blue in the face, but you can't convince me that D and C++ aren't in the same category (as far as language design goes). You can call C++ a POS, but then, to me, that means that at best, D is just a better POS. But not to end this post on a bad note/word, I admire C++ a little bit. I certainly don't hate it. I can deal with it's shortcomings for now, so I could probably deal with D's also, but if I was thinking about jumping ship, I'd be swimming toward an island and not another ship.
One's favorite language has most to do with a handful of fundamental dimensions (dominant paradigm(s), approach to typing, look and feel, regard to efficiency, connection to problem domain vs. machine, and a few more).
A coworker of mine, for example, doesn't mind a speed penalty of 2-5x, likes modeling power and semantic cleanliness, and is okay with some amount of code duplication. His favorite language is OCaml, and I'd probably choose the same if I had the same preferences.
For those who want at the same time like low-level access, modeling power, generic programming, and efficiency, OCaml wouldn't rank high in the list of preferences, and there wouldn't be many games in town. In your metaphor, swimming from a ship to an island would entail trading something that C++ offers for something it can't offer - which is fine. If, on the other hand, you'd rather keep to the fundamentals above, D is arguably a better language.
One other thing is flexibility once the choice has been made. Python is a great Python but an awful C++, not to mention the converse. D, on the other hand, is arguably a much better C++ and also a pretty good Python.
Andrei
