February 11, 2018
On Fri, 2018-02-09 at 13:39 -0800, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On 2/9/2018 6:01 AM, Atila Neves wrote:
> > Unit tests are a great idea, right? Try convincing a group of 10
> > programmers who
> > have never written one and don't know anyone else who has. I have;
> > I failed.
> 
> Unit tests are one of the great success stories of D. I believe it
> was a success
> because it was so simple to add unit tests to the code, and to run
> those tests.
> 
> D's unit testing system didn't even need to be very good. It just had
> to be
> *easy*. And that changed everything.

Confirmatory evidence is that Rust does the same thing.

-- 
Russel.
===========================================
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk


February 11, 2018
On Tuesday, 30 January 2018 at 20:45:44 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> https://www.quora.com/Why-hasnt-D-started-to-replace-C++
>
> Andrei

Why indeed!

"I am appalled at the monstrous messes that computer scientists can produce under the name of ‘improvements’. It is to efforts such as C++ that I here refer. These artifacts are filled with frills and features but lack coherence, simplicity, understandability and implementability. If computer scientists could see that art is at the root of the best science, such ugly creatures could never take birth."

"Since C is low level and object orientation is an inherently high level concept the result is conceptually incoherent."

[ R.P.Mody - C in Education and Software Engineering - 1991 ]


February 11, 2018
On Sunday, 11 February 2018 at 14:33:33 UTC, psychoticRabbit wrote:
> On Tuesday, 30 January 2018 at 20:45:44 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> https://www.quora.com/Why-hasnt-D-started-to-replace-C++
>>
>> Andrei
>
> Why indeed!
>
> "I am appalled at the monstrous messes that computer scientists can produce under the name of ‘improvements’. It is to efforts such as C++ that I here refer. These artifacts are filled with frills and features but lack coherence, simplicity, understandability and implementability. If computer scientists could see that art is at the root of the best science, such ugly creatures could never take birth."

If it is not implementable (it is complex, I agree), why there are 3 major compilers? I think the future should go towards simplification a bit more for the idiomatic code. But there are features you cannot ignore in low-level languages: asm embedding, bit control, reference vs value, due to register efficiency and others. So I do not think it is such a *super bad* choice. In day-to-day life you need these things.

February 11, 2018
On Sunday, 11 February 2018 at 15:07:00 UTC, German Diago wrote:
> If it is not implementable (it is complex, I agree), why there are 3 major compilers?

At least 4: Intel, Microsoft, GCC and Clang. Then you have EDG and IBM, probably more.



February 11, 2018
On 2/11/2018 2:16 AM, Russel Winder wrote:
> Confirmatory evidence is that Rust does the same thing.

D has an outsized influence that extends way beyond just D users :-)

Consider all the D features that somehow were "completely independently" discovered years later by C++!

Even little ones like char16_t, char32_t, and being able to separate digits with single quotes, and larger ones like static if and ranges.

February 12, 2018
On Sunday, 11 February 2018 at 23:00:40 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> Even little ones like char16_t, char32_t, and being able to separate digits with single quotes, and larger ones like static if and ranges.

D's support for ranges is probably the single most important reason why I choose to use D. (lot's of other very good reasons too, but not as important as ranges).

When I look at other languages now, the first thing I want to know is, does it have integral support for ranges??

"ranges .. improve safety when compared with iterators because they never allow invalid pairs of iterators."

http://www.informit.com/articles/printerfriendly/1407357

February 12, 2018
On Monday, 12 February 2018 at 04:59:10 UTC, psychoticRabbit wrote:
> On Sunday, 11 February 2018 at 23:00:40 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> Even little ones like char16_t, char32_t, and being able to separate digits with single quotes, and larger ones like static if and ranges.
>
> D's support for ranges is probably the single most important reason why I choose to use D. (lot's of other very good reasons too, but not as important as ranges).
>
> When I look at other languages now, the first thing I want to know is, does it have integral support for ranges??
>
> "ranges .. improve safety when compared with iterators because they never allow invalid pairs of iterators."
>
> http://www.informit.com/articles/printerfriendly/1407357

C++ is expected to add ranges based on this library
https://github.com/ericniebler/range-v3


February 12, 2018
On Monday, 12 February 2018 at 05:45:13 UTC, Ali wrote:
> C++ is expected to add ranges based on this library
> https://github.com/ericniebler/range-v3

Yes, but given the significance of C++, it really should be leading.. not following (at snails pace).

C++ simply has too much legacy stuff to contend with..and that will continue to hold it back.. forever.

The best C++ can do, is (slowly) think about copying what others are doing..to the extent C++ can handle it, and to the extent the 'committees' agree to doing it.

C++ is like a Jackson Pollock painting - I look at it, and think to myself...wtf!

Of course it's all in the eye of the beholder.

February 12, 2018
On Monday, 12 February 2018 at 09:04:57 UTC, psychoticRabbit wrote:
> The best C++ can do, is (slowly) think about copying what others are doing..to the extent C++ can handle it, and to the extent the 'committees' agree to doing it.

Well, most languages are like that... including D.

April 03, 2018
On Wednesday, 31 January 2018 at 11:42:14 UTC, Seb wrote:
> On Wednesday, 31 January 2018 at 10:35:06 UTC, Benny wrote:
>> [...]
>
> Not sure why that's a bad thing. They all have their ups and downs:
>
> [...]

Since some want Quora engagement, I thought I'd mention this thread I just stumbled upon, while doing an unrelated google search for Nim, that had some mentions of D:

https://www.quora.com/in/Of-the-emerging-systems-languages-Rust-D-Go-and-Nim-which-is-the-strongest-language-and-why

May be worth reading, or someone here might want to add their own answer.