Live data from Hacker News

How an Engineering Company Chose to Migrate to D

dlang.org

61–70 of 170 posts

Re: How an Engineering Company Chose to Migrate to D

#61

While the article states that other languages were evaluated, it seems as though the project was motivated entirely by the author and the evaluation was just paying lip service to what was basically a foregone conclusion. Don't get me wrong, I like D from the small amount of playing I've done with it -- and maybe it is the best tool for their purposes -- but this doesn't strike me as an impartial evaluation. The need…

The biggest problem is they have engineers who have turned their hands to programming, one would expect, without the formal training and so have latched onto various antipatterns without knowing any better because Pascal allowed them to get away with it - painting themselves into a corner. He mentioned an awful lot of code that would have to be refactored, and it could be that they are just too far down the rabbit ho…

In this case, I'd look into compiling the existing code into .dll/.so files, and just linking between Extended Pascal and ${NEW_LANGUAGE}. Then, convert the code to ${NEW_LANGUAGE} as needed, if needed.

That solution is probably the lowest cost / safest course... Assuming the Extended Pascal compiler they have supports it.

But I suspect choosing D was a fait accompli.

Re: How an Engineering Company Chose to Migrate to D

#63

While the article states that other languages were evaluated, it seems as though the project was motivated entirely by the author and the evaluation was just paying lip service to what was basically a foregone conclusion. Don't get me wrong, I like D from the small amount of playing I've done with it -- and maybe it is the best tool for their purposes -- but this doesn't strike me as an impartial evaluation. The need…

Framing closures as a “requirement” is pretty strange. Depending on the context they can be an ergonomic nice-to-have, but it’s not like you can’t express a program without them.

>Depending on the context they can be an ergonomic nice-to-have, but it’s not like you can’t express a program without them.

When talking about turing complete languages, everything is an ergonomic nice-to-have. All language features aspire to be so nice to have, that you come back around and call it a necessity. But you can still express a program without them, unless you strip out so much as to lose turing completeness.

Re: How an Engineering Company Chose to Migrate to D

#64
post #9

... and went bankrupt because of not being able to finding Engineers.

Patently false and disservice to software engineering.

There are many companies (e.g. Weka.IO, Sociomantic, etc.) that hire C++ developers and have them happily write D code. I did work at Weka.IO for a while and never met a single D programmer that was unhappy.

Ali Çehreli

Re: How an Engineering Company Chose to Migrate to D

#65

While the article states that other languages were evaluated, it seems as though the project was motivated entirely by the author and the evaluation was just paying lip service to what was basically a foregone conclusion. Don't get me wrong, I like D from the small amount of playing I've done with it -- and maybe it is the best tool for their purposes -- but this doesn't strike me as an impartial evaluation. The need…

The biggest problem is they have engineers who have turned their hands to programming, one would expect, without the formal training and so have latched onto various antipatterns without knowing any better because Pascal allowed them to get away with it - painting themselves into a corner. He mentioned an awful lot of code that would have to be refactored, and it could be that they are just too far down the rabbit ho…

Given they started in the 80's Pascal probably has fewer corners to paint oneself into then many languages then (and now probably).

Re: How an Engineering Company Chose to Migrate to D

#67
post #21
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers can learn new languages though if a company lets them. (Edited to be less glib. bad habit)

A friend (C# dev) just refused a job from a company in the Netherlands, for a D dev position. I don't know if it's the same company. It's not that they're not capable, but some will not want to risk several years of their career to learn it.

And did they refuse the job because of D, low salary, not wanting to move to the Netherlands or some other reason?

I could see a C++ dev giving this a try without hurting their career prospects, but C# devs are not exactly known for trying out non-mainstream technologies. If they switch for a couple of years MS will pump out a couple of frameworks and .NET programming languages. Fire and motion as such.

Re: How an Engineering Company Chose to Migrate to D

#68
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers can learn new languages though if a company lets them. (Edited to be less glib. bad habit)

I agree, but that costs money for the company and time for the developer. Airbnb dropping react native due to a lack of qualified candidates that were articulate in both the native and javascript realm is a great example. Something can work flawlessly with the right conditions (for instance, developers that understand and can implement the path of least resistance across native and react), yet if its prohibitive to c…

> but that costs money for the company and time for the developer

Quite the opposite: The new tool saves time and money.

Airbnb example just shows that one should not jump on the newest thing on the market.

Re: How an Engineering Company Chose to Migrate to D

#69
post #50
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>While the article states that other languages were evaluated, it seems as though the project was motivated entirely by the author and the evaluation was just paying lip service to what was basically a foregone conclusion. Now you understand how all of these "How we chose this language" writeups work.

Yeah, almost all the time its the inclination of an individual towards a new language that becomes the driving factor of migration rather than the actual shortcoming of current language.

“I wanted to move to this language and here’s the blog post I’m using to tell a story to my boss”

Re: How an Engineering Company Chose to Migrate to D

#70
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers can learn new languages though if a company lets them. (Edited to be less glib. bad habit)

I agree, but that costs money for the company and time for the developer. Airbnb dropping react native due to a lack of qualified candidates that were articulate in both the native and javascript realm is a great example. Something can work flawlessly with the right conditions (for instance, developers that understand and can implement the path of least resistance across native and react), yet if its prohibitive to c…

According to their own blog, they dropped react because it was a difficult to use piece of technology that was slowing them down and making it difficult to offer a top notch mobile experience.

Yes, they also had difficulties hiring devs which know both native and react, but that's normal. Most mobile devs wouldn't touch react.

Post reply on HN