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I doubt that is a sign of D finally gathering momentum, though. Just a few D users discovering hacker news. D is a failed language design (among countless othe

by copx 13y ago

I doubt that is a sign of D finally gathering momentum, though. Just a few D users discovering hacker news. D is a failed language design (among countless others) if you ask me. I remember originally it was meant to be a "cleaned up, modernized C++ replacement" but these days it seems to lack any coherent concept. Rust certainly runs circles around it if you want a "cleaned up, modernized C++ replacement" and thus already has much more momentum than - by now old - D. Is there any reason to assume that D can still manage to break out of its "obscure enthusiast language" position? That is not a rhetorical question, I am genuinely curious.

scott_s 13y ago
D was overhauled a few years ago, and the result is quite interesting. I don't think D is a failed design, but that it was "just" an incremental improvement. That incremental improvement was in many different areas, but it didn't allow introduce fundamentally new ways to program. If you haven't seen the newest version of D, though, it's worth looking at. But I agree that Rust gives me more hope. Rust's treatment of memory seems like it's obviously the best way to do manual but safe memory management.
thepumpkin1979 13y ago
You should take a look at D2, it's a huge improvement over D1. Is not a failed language design, it's the good half of every modern programming language out there. I agree that Rust is gaining momentum and it's memory-handling approach is definitely the one I prefer, however, I still like D way to do things.
WalterBright 13y ago
The concept of modern D is: 1. Easy to read and understand code 2. Provably correct 3. Industrial quality
- angersock 13y ago
  That sounds nothing like the C++ I know.
WalterBright 13y ago
> Just a few D users discovering hacker news. I've been a regular here for 4 years!
qznc 13y ago
I do not consider Rust and D to be in the same niche. D is relatively conservative in terms of features, but it is more broad and complex. D as a language is not minimal, although that is en vogue today. For example, does Rust address SIMD/Vector Extensions [0], Contracts [1], Inline assembly [2]? Rust is more of a experimental variant of C (or ML) with respect to parallelism and concurrency. Rust is more minimalistic, because it solves problems with general mechanisms instead of special syntax. For example, instead of special syntax for unittests in D [3], in Rust you use the general attribute mechanism in Rust [4]. I do not want to judge them against each other. D is the solid language, which I hope replaces C++ as soon as possible. As a C/C++ programmer you feel at home in D relatively fast. On the other hand, Rust is an interesting language, which might show us a better way to program multicore computers. Learning Rust stretches your mind, instead. [0] http://dlang.org/simd.html http://dlang.org/simd.html [1] http://dlang.org/dbc.html http://dlang.org/dbc.html [2] http://dlang.org/iasm.html http://dlang.org/iasm.html [3] http://dlang.org/unittest.html http://dlang.org/unittest.html [4] http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/rust.html#attributes http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/rust.html#attributes
- ch_123 13y ago
  I believe Rust supports inline asm - https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-April/003427.html https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-April/00342... There also seems to be some work on SIMD extensions - https://github.com/mozilla/rust/pull/6214 https://github.com/mozilla/rust/pull/6214

by copx 13y ago

scott_s 13y ago

D was overhauled a few years ago, and the result is quite interesting. I don't think D is a failed design, but that it was "just" an incremental improvement. That incremental improvement was in many different areas, but it didn't allow introduce fundamentally new ways to program. If you haven't seen the newest version of D, though, it's worth looking at. But I agree that Rust gives me more hope. Rust's treatment of memory seems like it's obviously the best way to do manual but safe memory management.

thepumpkin1979 13y ago

You should take a look at D2, it's a huge improvement over D1. Is not a failed language design, it's the good half of every modern programming language out there. I agree that Rust is gaining momentum and it's memory-handling approach is definitely the one I prefer, however, I still like D way to do things.

WalterBright 13y ago

The concept of modern D is: 1. Easy to read and understand code 2. Provably correct 3. Industrial quality

angersock 13y ago
That sounds nothing like the C++ I know.

WalterBright 13y ago

> Just a few D users discovering hacker news. I've been a regular here for 4 years!

qznc 13y ago

I do not consider Rust and D to be in the same niche. D is relatively conservative in terms of features, but it is more broad and complex. D as a language is not minimal, although that is en vogue today. For example, does Rust address SIMD/Vector Extensions [0], Contracts [1], Inline assembly [2]? Rust is more of a experimental variant of C (or ML) with respect to parallelism and concurrency. Rust is more minimalistic, because it solves problems with general mechanisms instead of special syntax. For example, instead of special syntax for unittests in D [3], in Rust you use the general attribute mechanism in Rust [4]. I do not want to judge them against each other. D is the solid language, which I hope replaces C++ as soon as possible. As a C/C++ programmer you feel at home in D relatively fast. On the other hand, Rust is an interesting language, which might show us a better way to program multicore computers. Learning Rust stretches your mind, instead. [0] http://dlang.org/simd.html http://dlang.org/simd.html [1] http://dlang.org/dbc.html http://dlang.org/dbc.html [2] http://dlang.org/iasm.html http://dlang.org/iasm.html [3] http://dlang.org/unittest.html http://dlang.org/unittest.html [4] http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/rust.html#attributes http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/rust.html#attributes

ch_123 13y ago
I believe Rust supports inline asm - https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-April/003427.html https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-April/00342... There also seems to be some work on SIMD extensions - https://github.com/mozilla/rust/pull/6214 https://github.com/mozilla/rust/pull/6214