A thread for documenting D's discussion on social media.

"Ask HN: Why do you use Rust, when D is available?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23494490

On Friday, 12 June 2020 at 19:45:20 UTC, James Lu wrote:
> "Ask HN: Why do you use Rust, when D is available?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23494490

That is some depressing stuff. And as usual, complaints about the GC rule the day along with some shallow commentary. (Typical HN) However, concerns about cross-platform IDE support and outdated std modules are certainly valid.

On Saturday, 13 June 2020 at 05:36:10 UTC, Clarice wrote:
> On Friday, 12 June 2020 at 19:45:20 UTC, James Lu wrote:
>> "Ask HN: Why do you use Rust, when D is available?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23494490
>
> That is some depressing stuff. And as usual, complaints about the GC rule the day along with some shallow commentary. (Typical HN) However, concerns about cross-platform IDE support and outdated std modules are certainly valid.

To convince some people about those valid points, you'll have to transplant for them a new brain. Or go back in time and change their life course.

More to the point, it'll be great to have those recurring issues documented. And visible to everyone one...including ongoing efforts.

I know not everyone thinks that way though.

On Friday, 12 June 2020 at 19:45:20 UTC, James Lu wrote:
> "Ask HN: Why do you use Rust, when D is available?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23494490

It's funny how GC is repeatedly mentioned as a drawback of D, however it is never mentioned as a drawback of Nim. Does this have anything to do with that swapping out GC algorithms in Nim is much more easy than in D? In D you can't really swap GC algorithms by just changing a compiler option.

On Saturday, 13 June 2020 at 10:43:41 UTC, IGotD- wrote:
> On Friday, 12 June 2020 at 19:45:20 UTC, James Lu wrote:
>> "Ask HN: Why do you use Rust, when D is available?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23494490
>
> It's funny how GC is repeatedly mentioned as a drawback of D, however it is never mentioned as a drawback of Nim. Does this have anything to do with that swapping out GC algorithms in Nim is much more easy than in D? In D you can't really swap GC algorithms by just changing a compiler option.

GC depends on who you talk to.

On Saturday, 13 June 2020 at 10:43:41 UTC, IGotD- wrote:
> On Friday, 12 June 2020 at 19:45:20 UTC, James Lu wrote:
>> "Ask HN: Why do you use Rust, when D is available?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23494490
>
> It's funny how GC is repeatedly mentioned as a drawback of D, however it is never mentioned as a drawback of Nim. Does this have anything to do with that swapping out GC algorithms in Nim is much more easy than in D? In D you can't really swap GC algorithms by just changing a compiler option.

I think there are three factors (never used Nim):

1) [citation needed] but I think Nim is less popular than D, so it's below the radar. "There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses."

2) I think Nim attracts different types of programmers. Nim seems to me like a mix of Python and Pascal and it seems these kind of programmers are going towards it. D is openly courting C++ programmers and many C++ programmers have elitist attitudes towards GC.

3) I think Nim isn't really looking to offer any ways to avoid automatic memory management, be it ARC or GC. D is. "How do I manage memory in D?". There is always someone saying that you don't have to use GC in D, there's betterC, @nogc, allocators. Then someone always comes in to say half of standard library doesn't work and most dub packages expect GC. In Nim, it's like "how do I manage memory?", "oh, Nim handles that for you, enjoy your stay".

On Saturday, 13 June 2020 at 13:00:35 UTC, JN wrote:
> There is always someone saying that you don't have to use GC in D

Yeah, this is true and for special cases we can show users how it is done, but I wish we'd just focus on actually selling GC instead of hiding from it.

GC is a proven winner in real world industry programming and is one of D's strengths. Why we constantly shoot ourselves in the foot by conceding this ground to internet trolls is beyond me.

On Saturday, 13 June 2020 at 10:43:41 UTC, IGotD- wrote:
> Does this have anything to do with that swapping out GC algorithms in Nim is much more easy than in D?

Is that true, though?

> In D you can't really swap GC algorithms by just changing a compiler option.

Better yet, it doesn’t even need a reconciliation: just add “--DRT-gcopt=gc:precise” on the command line and you have changed the scanning algorithm. There are many more options to configure the gc[1]. You can even write your own collector and switching to it is just as simple.

— Bastiaan.

[1] https://dlang.org/spec/garbage.html#gc_config

On Saturday, 13 June 2020 at 13:18:12 UTC, Bastiaan Veelo wrote:
> Better yet, it doesn’t even need a reconciliation:

s/reconciliation/recompilation

My phone thinks it’s smarter than me.