[acehreli]

> how is D different

I don't know Zig yet.

I had an opinion long time ago that nobody should use C anymore; I would suggest C++ at least because it has constructors and templates. D's [Better C](https://dlang.org/spec/betterc.html) would be my go-to at this time.

C++ is getting better but it's still very difficult to get right: It depends mainly on programmer attention e.g. to follow 400+ [guidelines](https://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines).

Rust is "different" but it has the borrow checker as a safety tool. D's [live functions](https://dlang.org/spec/ob.html) and other [memory safety](https://dlang.org/blog/2022/10/08/dip1000-memory-safety-in-a...) features are closing the gap there.

> major selling point

I am copying slide 59 here: D provides competitive advantage by helping happy programmers produce correct programs pragmatically.

Slide 8 lists what D does not have, which can explain why D has not gained popularity that it deserves. For example, nobody can sell D as "Google's language" or "Apple's language".

[no_wizard]

Is there a way to enable safe "D" by default, rather than using the `@safe` (what looks to be) modifier?

[acehreli]

No. We had a very long discussion about safe-by-default on the forums but failed to reach a consensus.

As I understand it, for safe-by-default to work, either all C libraries would have @trusted D bindings written, or all of them would have to be assumed to be @trusted. Most of the community wanted explicit @trusted annotations, Walter and others favored assuming them to be @trusted (or was it assumed @safe?) was the way to go. So, no safe-by-default at this time. :/

[gavinray]

D-lang attributes can be used like a label, so for example you can put at the top of your file:

   @safe nogc:

   auto myFunc() { // do stuff }   
   struct Blah {}

Whatever attributes you use apply to all code in the lexical scope below the colon.

It's useful for structs/classes

  struct MyThing {
    auto unsafeFunc() {}
    
    @safe:
    auto safeFunc1() {}
  }

[nicwilson]

Kind of, mark `main` `@safe`. The transitivity of safety will ensure that you can only call safe functions, else you will get a compile error.

[synergy20]

makes sense, thanks!