On 1/8/2012 3:57 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
On Saturday, January 07, 2012 22:19:53 Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
Here's an interesting discussion that may reflect the perceptions and
misperceptions about D within the larger community.
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/58832/
Not exactly the most informed discussion. But I would expect that some of the
misinformation is fairly typical. I'd say that a lot of what people think or
know about D is from a couple of years ago (if not farther back) and/or
derived from the opinions of others rather than real experience. And an
initial bad experience (as has happened far too often, as we've seen with
newbies reactions to stuff not working just around here, let alone in the D
community as a whole) can definitely lead to negative and/or misinformed
beliefs, which then spread to others outside the D comunity when D is brought
up.
I'm not sure what we can do about that other than really improving what we
have to offer, and while we still have plenty to do, we've definitely been
making solid improvements.
- Jonathan M Davis
Unfortunately, there's nothing anyone really can do about it (and I'm
not actually directing this post at you, Jonathan, just preaching in
general). Java, for example, *still* suffers from the reputation it
gained back in the late 90's. You have companies like Sony running
successful online games with both the client and the server developed in
Java, while around the net people are swearing up and down that it's too
slow for games. There are issues with Java, sure, but modern JVM
performance is perfectly acceptable (and then some) for a significant
number of use cases.
We'll see the same thing with D, I'm sure. Once a negative rumor gets
out there, it refuses to go away regardless of its current veracity. New
programmers come along, hear things from their veteran colleagues, and
spread it around themselves without ever once bothering to verify it. It
seems very much to be a natural condition. Just look how bad it is in
the political arena.
I think the best we can do is to put our heads down, get the work done,
and step into an outside discussion every now and then to interject some
FUD-fighting evangelism (in the belief that not all of the naysayers are
knuckleheads, but simply misinformed). The people who really matter
right now are the ones who are rational enough to ignore the FUD and and
serious enough to give D more than a cursory look. Their initial
experience is what will ultimately make or break D's chances for wider
adoption.
That said, I do admit to a certain amount of blood boiling when I see my
favorite language being verbally abused!
