Hello everyone, I wish you all a happy 2024 with my warmest regards.

I am a software developer with a deep passion for the D programming language, actively using it in my projects. In my own software company, we prefer to use D to meet the needs of our clients. However, I have some concerns about the future of this language.

What are your thoughts on the journey of the D language? Although it hasn’t gained widespread popularity since its launch, I see it as a hidden treasure waiting to be discovered. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone involved in developing this language, especially the core team. However, I believe we need to resolve the disagreements within our community and support this language more robustly.

From forum discussions, I understand that the D language is undergoing a process of forking. Forking can be positive in some instances, but how beneficial can such divisions be for a programming language that already has a limited community? Let's please come together to develop this language and advance this wonderful project that has been shaped by years of hard work, finding common ground without hurting anyone.

Let’s declare 2024 as the "Year of D". Spend this year spreading and using D more extensively. Together, let's take this project to the place it deserves. With your support, we have the opportunity to showcase the potential of the D language to the entire world.

On Thursday, 4 January 2024 at 07:47:01 UTC, Waffle56 wrote:

I think the problem lies in that a lot of people want D in one direction, while the org wants D in another direction.

A lot of things are stalled or down right rejected, although they would provide quality of life improvements to D.

So I think the fork of D is mostly to add things that are QOL to D without the hassle of it being rejected or taking years to be implemented.

On Thursday, 4 January 2024 at 09:00:04 UTC, bauss wrote:

I want there to be improvements in the D language, this language really needs to be the best, and I think we can achieve it if we all strive for it, because this language has nothing less than C or C++, on the contrary, it is better than them.

On Thursday, 4 January 2024 at 07:47:01 UTC, Waffle56 wrote:

Have you ever stopped to think why is that the case? Being a contributor myself, it's incredibly frustrating to see how issues are ignored for years if not decades. Also, contributing to D is an incredibly painful and displeasing process. Hence the fork.
A lot of quality contributors have left the community solely becase of the DLF's stubbornes to change, to a point an unnamed someone would revert community changes based on his ridiculous claims

It's not that we just want to watch the world burn, we want the language to improve after all.

On Thursday, 4 January 2024 at 09:35:45 UTC, GrimMaple wrote:

Even though I don't know as much as you, is there anything I can do to help you? I'm generally involved in web backend development. If I can contribute, I would like to help you.

On Thursday, 4 January 2024 at 07:47:01 UTC, Waffle56 wrote:

My general experience is;

I'm a senior dev who has worked professionally with C# for years, and I tinker with D from time to time. I would absolutely Love to adopt D more widely in my own projects and eventually propose D as a solution for writing tools in commercial environment

The language I feel is very good. Has a vast feature set, and is definitely a competitor to other mainstream languages, but the pushback I face isn't the language.

It's general things like infrastructure. Dub registry is basic, lacking some very important features. Even very basic stuff like downloading dmd using the install.sh script which is a recommended way to download the toolchain fails because of a lack of GPG public key.

My honest suggestion would be the community/organisation focus on improving the infrastructure before looking to add more to the language as people's first experience of a new language (i.e. website, documentation, the steps to get started) should be positive otherwise they wont stick around, and wont become contributors

On Thursday, 4 January 2024 at 09:35:45 UTC, GrimMaple wrote:

I would be personally interested in a fork project, and would contribute if one kicks off

On Thursday, 4 January 2024 at 09:50:04 UTC, Waffle56 wrote:

The best way to start is to get in touch with Adam via Discord or by other means, the idea is still fresh and a lot of discussing is taking place.

On Thursday, 4 January 2024 at 09:52:49 UTC, Micah wrote:

I completely agree with this view, the language really needs to be promoted, and I am conducting efforts to do this in my own country. We wrote a project in the D language for a government institution, and I want to do everything I can to spread it more widely.

If you see it fit, we can establish a platform for our community where we adapt and share our knowledge and experiences in the D language. I can develop a system for this in a short time, using the D language for the backend.