Vision/2017H2

Meta

This document discusses the high-level vision for D with semestrial granularity. It is released in January and July of each year.

Note: This document focuses on goals the D leadership works on, explicitly fosters, or strongly believes are important for the success of the D language. Other contributions are always welcome and do not need to be necessarily aligned with this document.

H1 2017 Review

TODO

H2 2017 Priorities

Technical

• Finish -betterC
• dub fixes+improvements
• add core.aa (https://github.com/dlang/druntime/pull/1282)
• safe RC/Unique/WeakRef implementations (core.rc)
• better error messages for template constraints (C++ concepts)
• transition website docs to dpl-docs/ddox
• partial and parallel recompilation (fix issues with scalable build methods, e.g. template instance emission)
• more lazy semantics

Non-Technical

• Make it easier for people to contribute (aka remove entry barriers)
  • add more tooling to help with initial problems (there are a few of ideas in the DLang-Bot queue, which should get deployed in the near future)
  • improve contributor documentation and getting started (should be done by people who haven't seen the DMD/Phobos setup & codebase)
  • encourage the "a fix is only a PR away" mentality (e.g. by means of blog post(s))
  • reduce barrier of entry for potential contributors (e.g. bugzilla/forums registration)

• Increase motivation of existing contributors
  • avoid PRs being stalled in the review queue
  • increase interaction/communication between contributors. NG, mailing list, IRC, Slack
  • make it easy for contributors to adopt a small-scale project (e.g. approved functions to Phobos, ...)
  • promote the beginner/bootcamp Bugzilla tags (they are currently hard to find)
  • publish blog post(s) about a "success story" such as this one
  • create a positive, constructive, and professional environment