[WalterBright]

When I started, I was well aware of:

"Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8joT0oFuGoI

For a language without a megacorp pushing it, D is spectacularly successful. Consider:

1. It's developed by volunteers who work on it for the joy of it without remuneration.

2. People who spend the effort to get past the learning curve find it very pleasing and productive.

3. Other major languages have been continuously copying D's features :-)

4. Corporations that have adopted it for mission critical use have told me that D is their "secret weapon" that allows them to out-maneuver and out-innovate their competitors.

It's like the music business - you don't have to be the Beatles to have a very good career.

[thawkins]

Walter, I have been using your products way back since before Zortech, at the time it was the only C++ system that I could get to work with the Phar Lap DOS extender to create big binaries.

Thank you for all your hard work, your products formed the center on my early career, and most of what i know i learned using your tools.

Note I particularly loved "Zed" the text editor that came with the early toolchain.

Regards Tim Hawkins, a grateful hacker.

[WalterBright]

Welcs!

[dvfjsdhgfv]

> It's like the music business - you don't have to be the Beatles to have a very good career.

I think you're too humble here. The quality of D is no lower than the competing products backed by huge corporations.

I also vaguely remember using Symantec C++, it was a refreshing alternative to the competitors of the time, and I had very pleasant experience using it.

[laumars]

> It's like the music business - you don't have to be the Beatles to have a very good career.

That is an inspired quote. I shall steal that and use it whenever anyone argues "why x when y already exists".

[vram22]

>whenever anyone argues "why x when y already exists".

Yes, seen many people argue that, including to me, e.g. about some of my blog posts, which show hand-rolled ways of doing things when a library for that exists. I guess often such people are not doing anything much themselves, and don't get that people can create something in the same area where something else exists, for any number of reasons, even just for sheer fun, love of the field, or for teaching beginners.

[schlupa]

or simply to have control over the code.

[vram22]

Yes, good point. When it is not a blog post but real-life project code, I sometimes do it for that reason you mention.

[codyguy]

> "Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?"

You are an inspiration Walter !!

[WalterBright]

My favorite line from the movie.

[bausshf]

> It's like the music business - you don't have to be the Beatles to have a very good career.

For someone who is in both the music business, but also a D programmer for many years, I got to say this was the most inspirational quote I have ever read and it'll be my inspiration in both fields.