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Ultimately, for any language to become popular, it must bring something radically new on the table (e.g. Java: relative performance, simplicity and safety; Pyth
by pizza234 5y ago
Ultimately, for any language to become popular, it must bring something radically new on the table (e.g. Java: relative performance, simplicity and safety; Python: immediacy; etc.), and/or have a big company behind. D doesn't have any of the two (unfortunately! I do appreciate the language).
This viewpoint is typically represented by the question "what can I do in X that I can't in C++?".
Something I personally find interesting is the thought experiment: if Golang was written by a small actor, and D by a big one, which one would have succeeded?
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoI don't know that it's essential that a big company be behind a language. What's essential is that the tooling and the libraries be top-notch. That's beyond the reach of an individual, or even a small team. But a large company can easily provide the resources to do that. (The third essential is that a language do something significantly better or easier than existing languages. A language can't just be "does the same as C, but with a bit different syntax", unless it's radically better syntax. Switching languages has a cost; your new language has to pay back that investment or it won't get used.)
- andai 5y agoI can't remember where I heard this, but there's a principle that a competing product can't just be 10% better. To justify the cost of switching, it has to be 10X better.