One can use C without an OS on any of the Atmel microcontroller range... why would D need an OS to support it? 

On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 12:45 AM, Paulo Pinto <pjmlp@progtools.org> wrote:
The only language without runtime is pure assembly.
 
All high level languages require a runtime library, even C, despite what many people think.
 
Now in this case what would be nice would be the possibility to generate code that runs on top of the arduino without any
real OS. This is a common use case in embedded systems and here the runtime has even an higher value as it takes the
role of an OS.
 
--
Paulo
 
"Manu" <turkeyman@gmail.com> wrote in message news:mailman.312.1328277504.25230.digitalmars-d@puremagic.com...
On 3 February 2012 15:37, Alex_Dovhal <alex_dovhal@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Andrea Fontana" <advmail@katamail.com> wrote:
>In this case can we hope for a d frontend?
That depends if it's MCU or MPU. If it will be MCU(like ARM7TDMI), which means Harvard Architecture (where Program code and RAM are physically different). Also internal RAM of a few KB and no Linux.
If it'll be MCU then it can have Linux OS, so theoretically it can have GDC ported.
 
Eh? Why would GDC depend on linux at all? If you disable the GC (and dependent language functionality), and manage to do something about the horrible exe bloat, there's no reason it shouldn't be able to target anything...
The obvious advantage over C is the syntax features. Clearly D as a *language* shouldn't DEPEND on the druntime, other than some language features that imply GC, like dynamic arrays/etc.
 
Is the toolchain not capable of producing a working exe without linking any library? Surely you can write a totally raw app with no libs at all? (assuming you avoid language features that make implicit druntime calls)