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The reference D compiler is now open source

forum.dlang.org

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Re: The reference D compiler is now open source

#3

Post by JoshTriplett »

Interesting change! Before, people had a choice between the proprietary Digital Mars D (dmd) compiler, or the GCC-based GDC compiler. And apparently, since the last time I looked, also the "LDC" compiler that used the already-open dmd frontend but replaced the proprietary backend with LLVM.

I wonder how releasing the dmd backend as Open Source will change the balance between the various compilers, and what people will favor going forward?

Re: The reference D compiler is now open source

#5

Post by WalterBright »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #3

Interesting change! Before, people had a choice between the proprietary Digital Mars D (dmd) compiler, or the GCC-based GDC compiler. And apparently, since the last time I looked, also the "LDC" compiler that used the already-open dmd frontend but replaced the proprietary backend with LLVM. I wonder how releasing the dmd backend as Open Source will change the balance between the various compilers, and what people wil…

Each of dmd/gdc/ldc has their individual strengths and styles. It's an embarrassment of riches.

Re: The reference D compiler is now open source

#6

Post by WalterBright »

omginternets wrote: post #4
WalterBright wrote: post #2

And best of all, it's the Boost license! Here it is: https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/6680

Why is this a good thing? I'm not familiar with the Boost license.

http://www.boost.org/users/license.html explains it better than I can.

Re: The reference D compiler is now open source

#7

Post by JoshTriplett »

WalterBright wrote: post #5
JoshTriplett wrote: post #3

Interesting change! Before, people had a choice between the proprietary Digital Mars D (dmd) compiler, or the GCC-based GDC compiler. And apparently, since the last time I looked, also the "LDC" compiler that used the already-open dmd frontend but replaced the proprietary backend with LLVM. I wonder how releasing the dmd backend as Open Source will change the balance between the various compilers, and what people wil…

Each of dmd/gdc/ldc has their individual strengths and styles. It's an embarrassment of riches.

> Each of dmd/gdc/ldc has their individual strengths and styles.

I'd be really interested to hear a comparison of those from someone experienced with D and its community.

Re: The reference D compiler is now open source

#8

Post by tombert »

Honestly, since I'm slightly psychotic about these things, this is a kind of huge to me. Part of the reason I never learned D was because the compiler was partly proprietary.

Now I have no excuse to avoid learning the language, and that should be fun.

Re: The reference D compiler is now open source

#9

Post by CyberShadow »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #7
WalterBright wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Each of dmd/gdc/ldc has their individual strengths and styles. It's an embarrassment of riches.

> Each of dmd/gdc/ldc has their individual strengths and styles. I'd be really interested to hear a comparison of those from someone experienced with D and its community.

The download page gives a brief summary:

http://dlang.org/download.html

More information on the wiki (also linked to from the download page):

https://wiki.dlang.org/Compilers

Re: The reference D compiler is now open source

#10

Post by jacques_chirac »

omginternets wrote: post #4
WalterBright wrote: post #2

And best of all, it's the Boost license! Here it is: https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/6680

Why is this a good thing? I'm not familiar with the Boost license.

It is the least encumbering, very permissive and very well regarded in both oss and corporate circles. Really a good choice to stick with it.
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