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digitalmars.D - Newbie Question(s)

reply gbojsza mac.com writes:
Hi,

I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.

I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED and AWK
years ago.

Is D a good choice for me? I want to develop for Linux (one key reason for
wanting to learn D) and 
Windows platforms?

Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to attract new
developers that this 
would be essential)? Any training materials or example code?

Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide but
translate everything to D 
examples as I go?

Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project framework
with...I don't think this 
will work with D -- can anyone comment if this is true and also point out what
would be a good 
alternative.

regards,

Glen
Jul 17 2004
next sibling parent Stephan Wienczny <Stephan Wienczny.de> writes:
gbojsza mac.com wrote:

 Hi,
 
 I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.
 


You should have a look at dsource.org. There are some nice tutorials for D.

Stephan
Jul 17 2004
prev sibling next sibling parent reply J C Calvarese <jcc7 cox.net> writes:
gbojsza mac.com wrote:

 Hi,
 
 I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.
 
 I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED and AWK
 years ago.
 
 Is D a good choice for me? I want to develop for Linux (one key reason for
 wanting to learn D) and 
 Windows platforms?
 
 Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to attract new
 developers that this 
 would be essential)? Any training materials or example code?


Some material is available:

http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?D__Tutorial
http://www.dsource.org/tutorials/

"Getting Started" threads on dsource:
http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=225
http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=190


 
 Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide but
 translate everything to D 
 examples as I go?


I've never read Thinking in C++. There are some parallels between C++ 
and D, but there's a different underlying philosophy in D. I'm sure 
reading about C++ would help you understand D.


 
 Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project framework
 with...I don't think this 
 will work with D -- can anyone comment if this is true and also point out what
 would be a good 
 alternative.


I'm not familiar with TogetherSoft. I tried to google a definition, but 
I still couldn't figure out what it is.

Is it a library or an IDE?

D is link-compatible with C, but C++ libraries can't really be used in D 
(unless some sort of wrapper is generated, which isn't an easy task).

An IDE might be coerced into recognizing keywords and running the DMD 
compiler, but nothing exciting.


 
 regards,
 
 Glen


-- 
Justin (a/k/a jcc7)
http://jcc_7.tripod.com/d/
Jul 17 2004
parent J Anderson <REMOVEanderson badmama.com.au> writes:
J C Calvarese wrote:


 gbojsza mac.com wrote:


 Hi,

 I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.

 I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED 
 and AWK
 years ago.

 Is D a good choice for me? I want to develop for Linux (one key 
 reason for
 wanting to learn D) and Windows platforms?

 Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to 
 attract new
 developers that this would be essential)? Any training materials or 
 example code?



 Some material is available:

 http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?D__Tutorial
 http://www.dsource.org/tutorials/

 "Getting Started" threads on dsource:
 http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=225
 http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=190


 Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide 
 but
 translate everything to D examples as I go?



 I've never read Thinking in C++. There are some parallels between C++ 
 and D, but there's a different underlying philosophy in D. I'm sure 
 reading about C++ would help you understand D.


 Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project 
 framework
 with...I don't think this will work with D -- can anyone comment if 
 this is true and also point out what
 would be a good alternative.



 I'm not familiar with TogetherSoft. I tried to google a definition, 
 but I still couldn't figure out what it is.

 Is it a library or an IDE?

 D is link-compatible with C, but C++ libraries can't really be used in 
 D (unless some sort of wrapper is generated, which isn't an easy task).


Just a thought, I did a seach for C++ -> C converters and found that  
AT&T CFront and Comeau C++ may be (I haven't checked) able to convert 
C++ source into C code.  There might be other ones that are free, 
although I've no idea how good the output is.


 An IDE might be coerced into recognizing keywords and running the DMD 
 compiler, but nothing exciting.


 regards,

 Glen





-- 
-Anderson: http://badmama.com.au/~anderson/
Jul 17 2004
prev sibling next sibling parent "Matthew" <admin stlsoft.dot.dot.dot.dot.org> writes:
<gbojsza mac.com> wrote in message news:cdb7ou$1a8f$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 Hi,

 I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.


Good idea!


 I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED and AWK
 years ago.


Cool. I have no experience with either, and would love to learn something, Even
a
two-sentence overview of each would be very nice. Will you oblige?


 Is D a good choice for me?


Yes


 I want to develop for Linux (one key reason for
 wanting to learn D) and
 Windows platforms?

 Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to attract new
 developers that this
 would be essential)? Any training materials or example code?

 Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide but
 translate everything to D
 examples as I go?


Probably not. You'll want a copy of the new book on D.  .... Bah! It's not
written yet. :(

Seriously, there are good examples people have put together - guys, help me out
here with links - and this NG also welcomes questions at all levels.


 Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project framework
 with...I don't think this
 will work with D -- can anyone comment if this is true and also point out what
 would be a good
 alternative.


No eye deer.

Welcome. Hope you have fun, and learn a lot. :)
Jul 17 2004
prev sibling parent teqDruid <me teqdruid.com> writes:
On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 12:58:06 +0000, gbojsza wrote:


 Hi,
 
 I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.


While D is truely a good language, it's not the most user friendly.  Even
the D site says that it's not a good beginner language.  You may want to
learn some C first, then graduate to D.


 
 I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED and
 AWK years ago.
 
 Is D a good choice for me? I want to develop for Linux (one key reason
 for wanting to learn D) and
 Windows platforms?


Although it frequently feels like I'm one of the few D developers on
Linux, there is a version of DMD for Linux (which I've yet to have a
problem with), and most of the libraries work on linux.


 
 Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to attract
 new developers that this
 would be essential)? Any training materials or example code?
 
 Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide
 but translate everything to D
 examples as I go?
 
 Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project
 framework with...I don't think this
 will work with D -- can anyone comment if this is true and also point
 out what would be a good
 alternative.


If it's an IDE you want, there are several.  There's the an Eclipse plugin
called eclipseD (this one's my project, and is hosted on dsource.org) as
well as one called LEDS.  There's also one called DIDE, however it only
runs on Windows, thus I have no experience with it.

 
 regards,
 
 Glen
Jul 19 2004