PR's welcome! Goal: up to date and objective comparison of features between D and nim, and 1:1 map of features to help D users learn nim and vice versa.
NOTE: tables render better (ie full width) with a chrome extension, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/49566642/1426932
NOTE: occasionally, nim code below will use the braces syntax skin to fit in 1 line
Help welcome, eg by filling in the entries with ? TODO and CHECKME, correcting wrong entries, or adding more (see also other files eg libraries.md).
| category | D | nim | 1 for D, -1 for nim |
|---|---|---|---|
| UFCS | |||
| UFCS supported everywhere | not everywhere, eg: mixin(expr), typeof(expr), local symbols | (called UFCS or MCS in nim) not for cast, not for templates/macros with untyped, see https://nim-lang.github.io/Nim/manual.html#templates-limitations-of-the-method-call-syntax |
|
| tuple | |||
| tuple unpacking | no | yes:proc getTup(): auto = (4, "foo"); let (_, a) = getTup() |
-1 |
| CTFE | |||
| engine | AST interpreter. every expression encountered will allocate one or more AST nodes. Within a tight loop, the interpreter can easily generate over 100_000_000 nodes and eat a few gigabytes of RAM. That can exhaust memory quite quickly. Future work: https://dlang.org/blog/2017/04/10/the-new-ctfe-engine/ | uses a register VM (also the basis of Nimscript); faster | -1 |
| FFI during CTFE | no | no | 0 |
| embed directly C/C++ code | no | yes: emit |
-1 |
| can read/write/exec during CTFE | read only (string import) | yes; allows filesystem access via staticRead and staticExec; | -1 |
| other CTFE limitations | ? | Heap allocated compile-time variables are turned into immutable static/const at runtime. | ? |
| OOP | |||
| design | Java like | allows multi-method dynamic dispatch (defined outside, avoiding kitchen sink classes) | -1 |
| syntax | |||
| allows local imports | yes | no | 1 |
| import order irrelevant | yes | ? | 1 |
| package modules (allows backward compatible breaking of module into package) | yes: https://dlang.org/spec/module.html#package-module | yes but see timotheecour#22 | 0 |
| mutually recursive imports | yes | no, compile-time error. you can use forward declaration and/or "mixin foosymbol" to tell the compiler that a symbol will be visible at one point (CHECKME); see also: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30235080/cannonical-way-to-do-circular-dependency-in-nim, https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/3961, https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/2114; workaround: The lack of cyclic dependencies in Nim is usually worked around by having a types module | 1 |
| familiarity | C-like | C or Python-like | 0 |
| interpolated strings | no | yes | -1 |
| named parameter arguments | no | yes | -1 |
| style | (subjective opinion) https://dlang.org/dstyle.html ; style guide for phobos takes too much vertical whitespace (eg braces on their own line) | Nim Enhancement Proposal #1 | 0 |
| types | |||
| mutually recursive types | yes | these types can only be declared within a single type section (else would require arbitrary symbol lookahead which slows down compilation.) | 1 |
| nested types | yes | no; but see nim-lang/Nim#7449 | 1 |
| semantics | |||
| rvalue references | no | ? | ? |
| attribute inference | for template functions | ? | ? |
| Distinction between traced and untraced pointers | yes | -1 | |
| forward declarations allowed? | yes | no; see nim-lang/Nim#5287 | 1 |
| User defined operators | partial: opCall opSlice, opAssign etc | yes | -1 |
| User defined attributes | yes | ? | ? |
| RAII | yes (modulo caveats timotheecour#27) | no, see: RAII | 1 |
| prevention of null dereferencing | manual null checks required
|
manual null checks required
Nim also has an experimental |
? |
| debugging | |||
| maturity | |||
| stability | few breaking changes in each release | pre 1.0, new releases often make lots of break changes | 1 |
| community | larger | 1 | |
| interop | |||
| C++ | Calpypso (ldc fork) allows direct C++ integration | 1 | |
| C++ | C/C++ code generation giving us much better interop than what D offers. Case in point: Converting to cstring doesn't require an allocation and copy; see also timotheecour#12 | -1 | |
| can compile to js | yes | -1 | |
| direct use | no | Nim emits C code and you can break in with emit pragma; C code doesn't have to be written outside nim file | -1 |
| standard library | |||
| ranges | D ranges (implements empty, front, popFront) | yield-based iterators ; maybe simpler to write but less efficient? not as flexible? (eg: can't do infinite ranges, bidirectional ranges) | ? |
| variable length arrays | D allows alloca |
see https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/499 (Variable length array) | ? |
| slices form pointer + length | builtin, T[] |
pending https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/5753 or nim-lang/Nim#8256 | 1 |
| strings are built from arrays | yes, immutable(char)[] |
no, different type, so less generic API's | 1 |
| lazy functional programming (eg map, filter) | yes, eg std.algorithm |
no (pending nim-lang/Nim#3837, nim-lang/Nim#8188) | 1 |
| ecosystem | |||
| contributing | PR's languish forever | PR's get merged way faster in nim (see https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/pulls vs https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pulls or phobos etc but not sure how to quantify objectively; see also https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/pulse vs https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pulse). QUOTE: Nim is magnitudes of orders easier to contribute to. Not only the compiler code is easier to reason about (at least for me), but PRs are accepted a lot more willingly. I bet such openness of the core devs makes Nim evolution faster and I hope it's gonna stay that way no matter 1.0. | -1 |
| repo split | dmd,druntime,phobos | single repo for compiler + stdlib making synchronization easier | -1 |
| github history | highly intertwined (uses merges) | almost linear (guessing it rebases) | -1 |
| issue tracker | bugzilla (issues.dlang.org) | github issues (https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues) | -1 |
| opened/closed bugs | 4588/14061 (https://dlang.org/bugstats.html) | 1296/3437 https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues | ? |
| packages | |||
| packages | dub: https://code.dlang.org/ | nimble: https://nimble.directory/packages.xml and https://github.com/nim-lang/packages | 0 |
| number of packages (as of 2018/07/13) | 1346 (http://code.dlang.org/) | 704 (nimble list ) |
1 |
| tooling | |||
| format code | dfmt --inplace |
nimpretty, not yet ready: nim-lang/Nim#7420 |
1 |
| code reduction for bugs | dustmite | pending nim-lang/Nim#8276 | 1 |
| REPL | https://github.com/dlang-community/drepl ; https://github.com/callumenator/dabble | unofficially, you can use nim secret but it does not support a lot of things. The most promising is nrpl |
? |
| implementation | |||
| GC | single shared memory heap that is controlled by its GC, thread safe, fully conservative, stop-the-world | precise, thread-local heaps, a bit more deterministic and a lot faster, you can even timeframe it if you need consistent 60fps for example. Much better GC implementation for soft real-time applications because it can be paused or the max pause can be tuned. Default GC is not thread safe. GC implementation can be switched at compile-time between deferred reference counting with cycle detection (default), mark and sweep, boehm or no GC (memory regions). Untraced heap-allocated manually managed objects are available (nim distinguishes bw ref and ptr: traced references point to objects of a garbage collected heap, untraced references point to manually allocated objects or to objects somewhere else in memory) | -1 |
| compile speed | faster (via dmd) CHECKME | 1 | |
| is compiler bootstrapped? | frontend, not yet backend | yes, and bootstrapping sources can be regenerated from nim allowing compiler sources to use latest features | -1 |
| error messages uses poisoning/gagging to avoid spurious errors | yes | ? | ? |
| binary sizes produced | produces smaller binaries | -1 | |
| shared library support | linux:OK; OSX: ldc (not dmd); windows: not OK(CHECKME) ; | anything that can be linked from C | -1 |
| doc | |||
| builtin doc | ddoc (noisy and nonstandard) | reStructuredText eg ## removesnfromL. Efficiency: O(1). (eg: https://nim-lang.org/docs/lists.html) |
-1 |
| metaprogramming | |||
| variadic generics | yes: void fun(T...)(T a) | no; RFC: Variadic Generics; but varargs[untyped] allowed in macros; not same though, eg can't be used in template functions |
1 |
| partial type template type deduction | yes | no, see https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/7529 | 1 |
| supported generic parameters | type, alias, constant | type, alias, constant | 0 |
| template constraint | void fun(T)(T a) if(isFoo!T) |
concepts are simpler to use: type isFoo = concept a (...); proc fun(a: isFoo) |
-1 |
| macro | no | hygienic macro system instead of string mixin; string mixin are available through parseStmt. The macros modify directly the abstract syntax tree given by the parser, before the compiler pass. It is possible to implement new DSLs based on the macro system: for example webserver DSL jester |
-1 |
| backend | |||
| available backends | custom (dmd), gcc (gdc), llvm (ldc) | C, C++, js; WIP llvm (https://github.com/arnetheduck/nlvm) | ? |
See also libraries.md
features requested in latest D survey (https://rawgit.com/wilzbach/state-of-d/master/report.html) that are already supported in Nim
- From the D survey question "What language features do you miss?", these features are supported in Nim: tuples, named arguments, string interpolation, in-place struct initialization, UFCS for local symbols, writing files at compile-time
- these are doable in library code: assert diagnostics, static break
- these are sort of available: Static inheritance
- https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1372
- tcc instead of clang (but not on OSX, see wheineman/nrpl#16)
| category/benchmark | D | nim | 1 for D, -1 for nim |
|---|---|---|---|
| functional: Zero_functional; Zero_functional fuses loop at compile-time when chaining zip.map.filter.reduce functional constructs | ? (missing D entry) | nim is currently number 1 or 2 against 9 other langs. The other number 2 or 1 lang being Rust. | ? |
| webserver | ? | Mofuw by @2vg is faster than tokio-minihttp, the current #1 on TechEmpower benchmark | ? |
| parsing csv files | csv-blog-d | csv-blog-nim; D and Nim had the same speed and same compilation time. fastest CSV parser (to parse GBs of machine learning datasets) is XSV in Rust | 0 |
See also timotheecour#11
- nim has head immutability unlike D: http://nim-by-example.github.io/types/objects/
- Indentation based syntax, but supports syntax skins
| category | D | nim |
|---|---|---|
| syntax:lexical | ||
| nesting block comments | /+ +/ |
#[ ]# |
| documentation comments | /** */ or /++ +/ or /// |
## or ##[ ... ]## |
| WYSIWYG string | `foo\nbar`, r"foo\nbar", etc. |
"""foo\nbar""", r"foo\nbar", etc.(?) |
| end of file (useful when debugging) | __EOF__ |
? |
| increment | i++ |
i+=1 or inc(i) |
| concatenation | ~ |
& |
| empty statement | {} |
discard |
| null pointer | null |
nil |
| checking for null | if (myObj is null) |
if myObj == nil or if myObj.isNil |
| syntax:parsing | ||
| alias | alias T2=T; |
?; template, see nim-lang/Nim#7090 |
| type alias | alias T2=T; |
type T2=T |
| string mixin | mixin("1+1") |
stringMixinLikeInD("1+1") with: macro stringMixinLikeInD(s: static[string]): untyped = parseStmt(s) source: https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1779/2#19060 |
| UFCS | foo(a, b), a.foo(b) |
foo(a, b), a.foo(b), a.foo b, foo a, b |
| expr without parenthesis | auto a=fun; calls fun |
var a=fun returns fun |
| UFCS expr without parenthesis | auto a=b.fun; calls fun |
var a=b.fun calls fun (when b is arg, not module) |
| static if .. else if .. else | static if(foo1) bar1 else if(foo2) bar2 else bar3 |
when foo1: bar1 elif foo2:bar2 else:bar3 |
| conditional compilation | version(OSX) |
when defined(macosx) |
| compile time if | static if |
when |
| string import | import("foo"); requires -J for security |
staticRead("foo") |
| public import | public import foo; |
import foo; export foo; |
| static import | static import foo; |
from foo import nil |
| package fully qualified access | pkg.mod.symbol(); |
symbol() (pkg.mod.symbol illegal) |
| syntax:exceptions | ||
| scope guards | scope(exit) foo, scope(success) foo, scope(failure) foo, |
defer: foo, ? , ? ; see also https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/141/1#23104 |
| try throw catch finally | try{throw new Exception("bar");} |
try: raise newException(IOError, "test exception") |
| syntax:array | ||
| static array literal | int[2] a = [1,2]; |
var a = [1,2] |
| dynamic array literal | auto a = [1,2]; |
var a = @[1,2] |
| dynamic array create | auto a = new int[2]; |
var a = newSeq[int](2) |
| empty dynamic array | auto a = []; |
var a:seq[int] = @[] |
| indexing slice of a | a[1..$], a[1..$-1], a[1..3] |
a[1..^1], a[1..^2], a[1..<3] |
| length | a.length; |
a.len |
| types | ||
| initial value of type | T.init (known at CT) |
? |
| type of | typeof(expr) |
expr.type |
| type name | T.stringof (builtin) |
T.name (import typetraits) |
| class | class A : B |
type A = ref object of B |
| struct | struct A |
type A = object |
| float: 32, 64 bit | float, double | float32, float(float64) |
| pointer sized int, uint | ptrdiff_t, size_t | int, uint |
| sized ints | byte, short, int, long | int8, int16, int32, int64 |
| char types | char, wchar, dchar | ?,?,? |
| functions | ||
| delegates | int delegate(int, int) |
proc (a, b: int): int {.closure.} |
| decl | ||
| variable decl | auto a=foo; |
var a=foo |
| immutable decl | immutable foo=bar; |
let foo=bar |
| compile time decl | enum foo=bar; |
const foo=bar |
| shared static | __gshared a = 0; |
var a {.global.} = 0 ? |
| static TLS | static a = 0; |
var a {.threadvar.} : int |
| ref return | auto ref fun(ref A a){ return a.x;} |
proc fun(a:var A):var a.x.type = return a.x |
| skip initialization | T a = void; |
var a {.noInit.}: T |
| attributes | ||
| purity | pure |
{.noSideEffect.} |
| nothrow | nothrow |
{.raises: [].} |
| safe | @safe |
? |
| GC free | @nogc |
? |
| lockfree | ? | {.locks:0.} |
| language | ||
| unit tests | unittest{stmt} |
https://nim-lang.org/docs/unittest.html |
| constructor | T(args) |
ad-hoc: newT(args), but see https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/7474 |
| semantics | ||
| float.init | NaN | 0 |
| file | __FILE__ |
instantiationInfo; limitation: doesn't work for function caller, cf nim-lang/Nim#7406 |
| traits | ||
| does expr compile | __traits(compiles, expr) |
compiles(expr) |
| get fields | T.tupleof |
x.fields |
| metaprogramming | ||
| static assert | static assert(foo); |
static: assert foo |
| library | ||
| universal type conversion | a.to!T | no: https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/7430 |
| option/maybe type | Nullable in std.typecons |
Option in the options module |
| path append | a.buildPath(b) | a / b ; does right thing on windows; NOTE: if b is absolute, buildPath returns b unlike nim |
| cmd line | ||
| custom define | -version=foo | --define:foo or --define:foo=bar |
| resources | ||
| tutorials | https://tour.dlang.org/ | https://nim-lang.org/docs/tut1.html |
| tools | ||
| caching compiler | rdmd | nim (compiles dependencies; only compiles changed file by default); https://github.com/Jeff-Ciesielski/nimr (subset of functionality) |
| find declaration | dscanner --declaration | nimgrep (but no declaration search, cf nim-lang/Nim#7419) |
| fix code | dfix | nimfix |
| package manager | dub | nimble |
| install specific compiler versions | digger | choosenim |
See also libraries.md
- https://www.slant.co/versus/118/395/~d_vs_nim
- https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1779 Nim vs D
- https://forum.dlang.org/post/mailman.1536.1428946094.3111.digitalmars-d@puremagic.com D vs nim
- http://gradha.github.io/articles/2015/02/goodbye-nim-and-good-luck.html
- https://www.quora.com/Of-the-emerging-systems-languages-Rust-D-Go-and-Nim-which-is-the-strongest-language-and-why
- https://github.com/kostya/benchmarks
- https://digitalmars.com/d/archives/digitalmars/D/D_and_Nim_251571.html
- https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1983#12391 A few questions about Nim
-
does it have dfmt equivalent?
-
instead of
newSeqcould we writenew!Seqor new[Seq] or anything else that's generic and doesn't pollute namespace? -
how to use dirty templates/macros that require an import? eg:
template foo*() {.dirty.} { #[want: import os ]# let programName = getAppFilename() }-
how to compose arbitrary ranges/iterators in Nim?
-
how to define a slice of type T from ptr + length? cf nim-lang/Nim#5437 feature-request pointer size pair, (openArray as value) #5437
- are there real immutable variables in nim ? A: https://www.reddit.com/r/nim/comments/2w32oi/immutability_in_nim/
- how to specify immutable inside
for(foo in bar)? A: immutability depends on iterator and by default iterators return immutable values.
var a = @[1, 2, 3, 4]
for item in a: item += 5 # compile-time error
for item in mitems(a): item += 5 # ok
-
how to search for symbols
fooBargiven that nim allows foobar fooBar foo_bar etc? A: nimgrep; also: Nim provides "nimsuggest" that can be used for vim, emacs, vscode, atom that autocompletes -
how to use global variables? (cf http://gradha.github.io/articles/2015/02/goodbye-nim-and-good-luck.html) A: Non-const global vars are not allowed in proc tagged noSideEffects and care must be used if accessed from multiple threads but there is nothing special about them otherwise.
-
can we modify a slice of an immutable array declared by 'let'? A: Slicing doesn't return a var T for let arrays so you can't. Note that immutability for stack objects/array/types is deep but for ref/ptr types it is shallow, it means that the memory address pointed to cannot be modified but the content can.
-
is there a robust way to write complex nim functions as a one liner (eg, for use in 1 line docs, in REPL etc); ideally by replacing indentation with braces A:
(st1; st2; st3), or undocumented braces syntax skin:
#? braces
proc main() {
echo "Hello"
}
when (isMainModule) {
main()
}https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1779/1#11314 => dmd backend license was changed recently