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Hello everyone!
Today is MLK day (or at least the day it is celebrated on in the United States), which got me thinking tangentially about freedom in the broadest sense, meaning all aspects of it in all domains of life, which in turn made me think about the immense amount of wondrous work and persistent dedication that so many alternative programming language designers have done over the years on behalf of users everywhere hoping for brighter creative horizons. Too often though such work is given less vocal gratitude than it deserves! Thus, I decided to make this thread here today.
Alternative programming language designers have spent decades working to liberate us all from the strictures and contrived arbitrariness of pre-existing systems. Programming language design is thus certainly a dreamer's profession and that's what language designers and MLK have in common: They both have a dream, a dream for liberation and a better future for us all. That deserves more respect than it is currently given I think.
There is too much complaining and not enough thanking. Both have their places but the proportion of each matters as well.
Life is never perfect, nor are any languages, but that doesn't make it not a magnificent achievement and an immensely worthy goal regardless, and the same is true of D and of all other extant significant programming languages to date.
As for myself, I briefly made a post asking about D a while back (several months ago?) when considering it, and after a few diversions and other busyness along the way I have returned here today having decided yesterday to use D for my next big project, after considering a balance of a wide variety of different factors and also "gut feel" and such.
The very near release of SDL3 and the corresponding nascent D bindings for it have also contributed to my choice in this regard, since based on SDL3's extensive list of new features compared to SDL2 the library will now be suitable for a much wider range of arbitrary software with greater ease (e.g. both games and tools) and I am looking forward to working with it alongside D.
Anyway, that's why I am here again today, but let's return now to the greater point:
I would like to salute and offer my deep and sincere gratitude to Walter Bright and all other D language contributors!
Much the same also goes for all other programming language designers in general and the wonderful and persistent work they do to the great benefit of the rest of us!
Likewise, I suggest that anyone else who appreciates such work and what it has given us take a moment today to similarly express their own gratitude for the liberation we have all been given by having these kinds of tools made available to us!
In any case, I wish you all a wonderful day, night, and upcoming week and may all your creative endeavors in D and elsewhere come to fruition and brighten the future of us all!
