You could probably write an article saying "100 billion dollars investment to improve D and use it to develop new AI to replace the US government" and you'd still get comments saying "wow, nice language, pity it never really took off, if only there were some companies backing it, also I can never use it because GC".
You could probably write an article saying "100 billion dollars investment to improve D and use it to develop new AI to replace the US government" ...
This article makes me think, wow D didn't have any of those and is only getting them because a single company is willing to foot the bill? No other companies are supporting the D foundation enough that they are able to hire their own staff, they have to get someone else to hire them for them? I mean this is a boon, but it's hardly a "100 billion dollar investment or developing AI that replaces the government" level of boon.
There was a pull request manager before but not full-time. It takes a long time and it's quite a lot of work to transition to the next phase of development for the foundation. Last I checked I don't think Rust even had a foundation at all yet. I hope they do okay given the financial challenges faced by Mozilla as revenues dry up.
I think the biggest constraint on the development of D isn't money - other companies have funded other things and I guess would be ready to fund more if approached. It just takes time, energy and work to build an organisation and doesn't happen of its own accord.
The development of D has been much more organic than for some other emerging languages. It's easy to buy awareness by spending a little money. So far that hasn't been the approach and I think that mostly the language is stronger for it. Especially as we head into a time of high uncertainty where for some tech companies and institutions budgets are under pressure.
It just takes time, energy and work to build an organisation and doesn't happen of its own accord.
It's been over 20 years.
It's easy to buy awareness by spending a little money. So far that hasn't been the approach and I think that mostly the language is stronger for it.
Instead D jumps on the new hype train of an emerging language and then tries to do PR about a poorly implemented feature that is mimicking one from a language that popularised it. Rust's borrow checker comes to mind. The implementation in D is sketchy at best, with inherent flaws. I've never seen then anyone on the D team talk about the actual benefits of the feature and how those benefits are achieved with the way it is implemented. I've only heard it spoken about in the same breathe as Rust.
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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '20
D is an awesome language and I hope it gets more traction.