Remark: For high-reliability (such as nuclear industry or blockchain) or for creating the fastest code or for real-time software Rust is better than D. But Rust is a language for geniuses (or at least is too difficult, especially for beginners). Also Rust is difficult to refactor. In my opinion, for general purpose programming we need just two languages: Rust and D.
Another remark: For some applications specialized languages are better. For example, you may have no other choice than to use JavaScript for in-browser programming. Mathematical checking ("validation") of software is easier if it is written in a functional language like Haskell. There are languages that allow "secure capabilities" making it impossible to call a private function (in D it is sometimes possible for example by using assembler code) allowing to use the programming language itself rather than OS to protect from hackers. D is problematic to be used as a “scripting” or “plugin” language, because of its compiled nature.
My claim is that in all other cases that I know, D is better than any other existing programming language (maybe except Rust). In other words, D is the best general purpose programming language (maybe except Rust). Next I will show how D is better than Python.
In the following table I list the well-known advantages of Python and show that D is better in (almost) every respect:
| Python |
D
|
You need less lines of code [2]
|
The program structure is seen better thanks to explicit delimiters.
|
| It's simple [1] |
You get more power |
|
It's free and open source [1][2] |
too |
| It's easy to use [1] |
too |
| It's highly compatible and portable [1][2] |
too, any of the common OSes |
| It is object-oriented [1] |
too |
|
It has lots of libraries [1][2] |
Sorry, D is a new programming language and has fewer libraries |
|
It has built-in data structures [1] |
too, and more advanced than Python |
| It's widely applicable [1] |
Much more widely |
|
It Increases speed of development and productivity [1][2] |
D has better productivity than Python, thanks to more reliability and therefore reduced time spent for debugging |
|
It's easy to learn [1][2] |
I'd say D is a little harder to study than Python, but you get more power |
rapid development? (not really, in complex Python projects you often stuck somewhere in the middle and need to rewrite everything)
|
Rapid development, even more rapid thanks to reliability features allowing you to spend less time in debugging
|
Now to disadvantages of Python (compared to other programming languages and to D in particular):
| Python |
D |
| Slow speed [2] |
one of the fastest languages, probably only Rust is faster |
| Not memory efficient [2] |
memory efficient |
| Runtime errors (not enough static checking). One in particular is that Python does not detect mis-spelled identifiers during compilation [2] |
provides reliability features allowing to detect many errors during compilation, moreover at runtime errors can be detected by contract programming before they do harm; be sure D is more reliable than technologies used in most nuclear plants and rocket controls
|
not energy-efficient (expensive server CPU time and not green)
|
one of the most energy-efficient languages, probably only Rust is more energy-efficient |
poor multithreading support, all threads run on one CPU core
|
full multicore multithreading support
|
D is a statically typed programming language, but almost all "dynamic" features of Python can be easily imitated in D using only static (type-checked) language features. For example, decorators can be imitated with templates.
Put short, D is the only programming language that is at once:
- rapid development (easy to use)
- efficient (produces fast code)
- increased reliability (less bugs in your code)
This is why D is the best general purpose programming language (if we exclude Rust as its closest competitor to be the best language).
