What compiler(s) can I use to link C++ with D?

Question

I want to create a program with a mix of C++ and D, and I would like to be able to work on it as a single project.

My understanding is that I can use some D compiler to output *.obj files, then I can do the same with some C++ compiler, and then link all of the *.obj files into a single binary, is this correct?

If this is correct, can I use any C++ compiler with any D compiler? Or am I restricted to certain combinations like, DMD-DMC, LDC-Clang, and GDC-GCC?

Which linker do I use?

And which standard library do I use?

Answer 1

In theory, you could mix the compilers, but in practice you'd have object file format and standard library mixing issues from time to time, especially on 32 bit Windows. It'd be hard there, but not too bad elsewhere since most things are based on de-facto standards like MSVC and gcc.

Win32: use dmc++ (the digital mars compiler and C runtime) with dmd OR g++ and gdc. Other combinations can be done but are messy. Best way to mix code in Win32 across compiler families is to build a DLL with a C or COM api and use that from D.

Win64: Since dmd uses the 64 bit Microsoft format and C library, you should have little trouble mixing dmd with Visual C++ code. I'm not sure about g++ on Windows64 with dmd.

Most other platforms, including Linux: dmd works along well with g++, as does gdc + gcc. I'm not sure if ldc and g++ are compatible, but ldc should work fine with other LLVM based commpilers on any platform too.