The reason D didn’t really gain traction over the years was because it required a garbage collector. Recently it’s going the other direction via betterC (a mode where you can ditch the GC), but many parts of the standard library still require the GC to run properly.
You can ensure your D code doesn't use the GC by adding the `@nogc` attribute.
But really, all this concern about the GC is misplaced. It's just another tool available. You can use it in D, or use RAII, or your own allocation system. It's your choice as a D programmer.
It is a shame that until now the software industry has not figure out how to reliably perform automatic memory management or GC. Unlike the auto industry the manual transmission is going to a dinasour route compared to the now default automatic transmission.
I am giving this analogy since Walter has a degree in mechanical engineering and he has correctly made the GC a default in D but not mandatory, but the choice somehow is not popular in the software industry.
