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“It seems to me that most of the ‘new’ programming languages fall into one of two categories: Those from academia with radical new paradigms and those from large corporations with a focus on RAD and the web. Maybe it’s time for a new language born out of practical experience implementing compilers.” -- Michael
“Great, just what I need.. another D in programming.” -- Segfault
D is a systems programming language. Its focus is on combining the power and high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages like Ruby and Python. Special attention is given to the needs of quality assurance, documentation, management, portability and reliability. The D language is statically typed and compiles directly to machine code. It’s multiparadigm, supporting many programming styles: imperative, object oriented, and metaprogramming. It’s a member of the C syntax family, and its appearance is very similar to that of C++. Here’s a quick list of features. It is not governed by a corporate agenda or any overarching theory of programming. The needs and contributions of the D programming community form the direction it goes. |
There are two versions of the language:
- D version 2 which is recommended for new projects.
- D version 1 which is in maintenance mode.
There are currently four implementations:
- Digital Mars dmd for Windows 1.0 2.0, x86 Linux 1.0 2.0, Mac OS X 1.0 2.0, and x86 FreeBSD 1.0, 2.0.
- LLVM D Compiler ldc for D version 1.
- Gnu D compiler gdc.
- D.NET compiler alpha for .NET for D version 2.
A large and growing collection of D source code and projects are at dsource. More links to innumerable D wikis, libraries, tools, media articles, etc. are at dlinks.
This document is available as a pdf, as well as in Japanese and Portugese translations. A German book Programming in D: Introduction to the new Programming Language is available, as well as a Japanese book D Language Perfect Guide, and a Turkish book D Programlama Dili Dersleri.
This is an example D program illustrating some of the capabilities:
#!/usr/bin/dmd -run
/* sh style script syntax is supported */
/* Hello World in D
To compile:
dmd hello.d
or to optimize:
dmd -O -inline -release hello.d
*/
import std.stdio;
void main(string[] args)
{
writeln("Hello World, Reloaded");
// auto type inference and built-in foreach
foreach (argc, argv; args)
{
// Object Oriented Programming
auto cl = new CmdLin(argc, argv);
// Improved typesafe printf
writeln(cl.argnum, cl.suffix, " arg: ", cl.argv);
// Automatic or explicit memory management
delete cl;
}
// Nested structs and classes
struct specs
{
// all members automatically initialized
size_t count, allocated;
}
// Nested functions can refer to outer
// variables like args
specs argspecs()
{
specs* s = new specs;
// no need for '->'
s.count = args.length; // get length of array with .length
s.allocated = typeof(args).sizeof; // built-in native type properties
foreach (argv; args)
s.allocated += argv.length * typeof(argv[0]).sizeof;
return *s;
}
// built-in string and common string operations
writefln("argc = %d, " ~ "allocated = %d",
argspecs().count, argspecs().allocated);
}
class CmdLin
{
private size_t _argc;
private string _argv;
public:
this(size_t argc, string argv) // constructor
{
_argc = argc;
_argv = argv;
}
size_t argnum()
{
return _argc + 1;
}
string argv()
{
return _argv;
}
string suffix()
{
string suffix = "th";
switch (_argc)
{
case 0:
suffix = "st";
break;
case 1:
suffix = "nd";
break;
case 2:
suffix = "rd";
break;
default:
break;
}
return suffix;
}
}
Notice: We welcome feedback about the D compiler or language, but please be explicit about any claims to intellectual property rights with a copyright or patent notice if you have such for your contributions. We want D to remain open and free to use, and do not wish to be caught by someone posting a patch to the compiler, and then later claim compensation for that work.