Three Cool Things About D - The Case for the D Programing Language

Google Tech Talk
July 29, 2010

ABSTRACT

C++ has been through many battles and won most of them. Invariably it has been patched with more armor, given more makeshift weaponry, and sent back to battle. Many contenders have tried to spell its demise, but C++ has remained undefeated ruler in one niche: high-performance systems with difficult modeling challenges. Between the halt of Moore's law for serial speed and the continued demand for performance, one thing has become clear: a replacement for C++ must be good at what C++ is good at, and good at what C++ is bad at. The D programming language is that contender. It packs much more punch in a much smaller package. Better yet, D has the flexibility to compete against other languages on their own turf.

This talk gives an introduction to the D programming language along with its motivation and basic tenets. The person who asks the more intriguing question wins a signed copy of the recently-published "The D Programming Language".

Andrei Alexandrescu coined the colloquial term "modern C++", used today to describe a collection of important C++ styles and idioms. His eponymous book on the topic, Modern C++ Design (Addison-Wesley, 2001), revolutionized C++ programming and produced a lasting influence not only on subsequent work on C++, but also on other languages and systems. Andrei's work has garnered appreciation in both industrial and academic circles through is work on C++ and on Machine Learning applied to natural language. Since 2006, Andrei has been second-in-command to Walter Bright, the D programming language inventor and initial implementer. Andrei co-designed many important features of D and authored a large part of D's standard library, as well as the recent book "The D Programming Language". Andrei holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington and a BS in Electrical Engineering from University "Politehnica" Bucharest. He works as a Research Scientist for Facebook.