It got asked on reddit sub but for those that aren't active too, I'd like you opinions. Please don't get me wrong, I also love D, I've used it everywhere I can and I'd say it's my favourite language (yes I have one...) but I'm as as the reddit's OP, trying to understand why it's unpopular. Rust and Go seeming to be getting more and more users. I think it's due to large ecosystem and the big corporations with deep pockets that pushes them. But I'd like to know you all opinions

On Tuesday, 2 November 2021 at 17:27:25 UTC, Dr Machine Code wrote:

Yes, that's a big part of it. If you look at other languages that doesn't have the corporate backing, they are about as popular as D. Also, when something is developed in a proper organization, it also usually means some kind of functional management and a few developers that can do that full time.

Python is kind of a outlier here, that has grown organically.

On Tuesday, 2 November 2021 at 17:35:08 UTC, IGotD- wrote:

Also C++, maybe? It's not like AT&T straight up commissioned Dr. Bjarne to write C with classes; atleast the first few years of cfront were very rough, keeping it relevant only because it had 100% C compatibility.

On Tuesday, 2 November 2021 at 17:27:25 UTC, Dr Machine Code wrote:

I don't think it is reasonable to say it is unpopular, Github activity shows that people create new projects with it at roughly the same rate as Nim, Crystal and other smaller languages.

What would be interesting to know is what made people who were very enthusiastic about D in the past (in the forums) switch to another language? Which language was it and why was that a better fit for them?

On Tuesday, 2 November 2021 at 17:27:25 UTC, Dr Machine Code wrote:

Have asked this question for a long time now. Still don't know why.

On Tuesday, 2 November 2021 at 18:08:53 UTC, Imperatorn wrote:

Strange, I don't asked this question but have seen lot of answers here in the forums

On Tuesday, 2 November 2021 at 17:50:04 UTC, Tejas wrote:

Alone that fact made almost every C compiler vendor embrace C++, as C++ was born on the same place as UNIX and C.

Then on the PC and Mac it quickly got the love from Apple (replacing Object Pascal with C++), IBM, Microsoft, Borland, Watcom, SGI, Sun, HP, among others, and naturally Digital Mars/Symantec as well.

During the 1990's, C++ was everywhere for desktop GUI frameworks from all OS vendors, and even TUI (like Turbo Vision).

Also Bjarne likes to tell that C++ only became an ISO because representatives of companies like IBM, and others of similar size, made it a requirement for adoption after a visit at AT&T.

On Tuesday, 2 November 2021 at 17:27:25 UTC, Dr Machine Code wrote:

What's the basis for saying it's not popular? How popular should it be? I don't think the discussion is productive without additional details.

Why doesn't it have heavy adoption in businesses? No, that's still too vague to be helpful. Why don't FAANG use it to develop their customer-facing apps? Still too vague. Why doesn't Amazon use it for [something Amazon sells]. Why doesn't NASA adopt it as their main language? Why isn't it used to teach intro programming classes?

On Tuesday, 2 November 2021 at 18:08:53 UTC, Imperatorn wrote:

Easy, during the last 10 years, Java, C# and C++ added the features that D had as edge over them.

While those improvements might be clunky in regards to how D has them, they allow for a good enough usage, while keeping the large ecosystem of libraries, IDEs and commercial support from third party vendors.

Meanwhile Swift, Go and Rust, managed to gather steam either by having a benolovent corporate sponsor or by having a proper goal of what they want to achieve.

D's main target seems to keep changing, every year it is getting the feature that will finally get everyone to come into D, then a year goes by and another feature goal replaces that one.

Latest example seems to be the ongoing Phobos reboot, with lifetime, ImportC, @nogc, scope, shared, dynamic loading across all OSes, WASM, .... still not fully there.

On Tuesday, 2 November 2021 at 18:57:32 UTC, Paulo Pinto wrote:

Well, yeah. But, if D has got something for everyone, why hasn't it got more users? 🤔