• Chris Williams (14/14) May 28 2014 My first day at DConf, during lunch, I ended up sitting next to
• Walter Bright (2/7) May 28 2014 We'd love to do multiple tracks, but the conference would need to get la...
• Andrej Mitrovic via Digitalmars-d (9/17) May 28 2014 Personally I think there were too many talks *per day*, it was hard not
• Chris Williams (10/16) May 28 2014 I suspect that for a power D user, keeping awake through a "How
• Steven Schveighoffer (8/14) May 28 2014 In fact, dconf '13 had a "tutorial" session the day before the main
• deadalnix (6/12) May 28 2014 Yup, at the end of the 3 days, I was like "What happened to my
• Walter Bright (4/6) May 28 2014 The reason Dconf was 3 days was to make it worthwhile for people traveli...
• Dicebot (7/18) May 28 2014 I was like "wtf has happened to my brain _and_ voice" ;)
• ed (12/27) May 28 2014 Does it have to split the entire DConf? What if a half-day was
• Walter Bright (4/6) May 28 2014 We did that for Dconf 2013; having a "tutorial day" preceding the confer...

"Chris Williams" <yoreanon-chrisw yahoo.co.jp> writes:

My first day at DConf, during lunch, I ended up sitting next to 
the CTO/CEO of a startup company that was considering D as their 
language of choice. He commented to me, and which makes sense to 
me, that the format of the conference wasn't very well geared to 
people who are just interested in figuring out what the language 
is like and how to get started with it.

His recommendation was to offer two tracks over two days (instead 
of one over three), whith one track focussing on things like how 
to get a development environment set up on different platforms, 
how to debug, overview of language features, etc. That way a CTO 
or other interested party could use the conference as a way to 
evaluate the language for use at their companies.

I also got the sense that he was hiring, should anyone be 
interested. Apakau.com

Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:

On 5/28/2014 2:05 PM, Chris Williams wrote:
 His recommendation was to offer two tracks over two days (instead of one over
 three), whith one track focussing on things like how to get a development
 environment set up on different platforms, how to debug, overview of language
 features, etc. That way a CTO or other interested party could use the
conference
 as a way to evaluate the language for use at their companies.

We'd love to do multiple tracks, but the conference would need to get larger
first.

Andrej Mitrovic via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:

Personally I think there were too many talks *per day*, it was hard not
getting tired and all the talks were extremely interesting. But I
understand that it's hard for people to take more free days for dconf alone.

On Wednesday, May 28, 2014, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d <
digitalmars-d puremagic.com> wrote:
 On 5/28/2014 2:05 PM, Chris Williams wrote:
 His recommendation was to offer two tracks over two days (instead of one


over
 three), whith one track focussing on things like how to get a development
 environment set up on different platforms, how to debug, overview of


language
 features, etc. That way a CTO or other interested party could use the


conference
 as a way to evaluate the language for use at their companies.

 We'd love to do multiple tracks, but the conference would need to get

larger first.

"Chris Williams" <yoreanon-chrisw yahoo.co.jp> writes:

On Wednesday, 28 May 2014 at 22:04:47 UTC, Andrej Mitrovic via 
Digitalmars-d wrote:
 Personally I think there were too many talks *per day*, it was 
 hard not
 getting tired and all the talks were extremely interesting. But 
 I
 understand that it's hard for people to take more free days for 
 dconf alone.

I suspect that for a power D user, keeping awake through a "How 
to set up Visual D" step-through would be pretty impossible.

If only one person like the guy I mentioned is going to show up, 
then to Walter's point, there's not much value in providing such 
a session in the conference. But maybe next year advertize an 
"intro to D" class that will be on the first day if there's 
enough interest, and then make people choose between "interested" 
or "not interested" when they register.

"Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy yahoo.com> writes:

On Wed, 28 May 2014 18:21:01 -0400, Chris Williams  
<yoreanon-chrisw yahoo.co.jp> wrote:

 If only one person like the guy I mentioned is going to show up, then to  
 Walter's point, there's not much value in providing such a session in  
 the conference. But maybe next year advertize an "intro to D" class that  
 will be on the first day if there's enough interest, and then make  
 people choose between "interested" or "not interested" when they  
 register.

In fact, dconf '13 had a "tutorial" session the day before the main  
conference. It was cancelled due to lack of participants.

Honestly, that kind of thing would be great as a webinar. Have it some  
random day before the conference, allowing people to ask questions live,  
then record it so others can watch it later.

-Steve

"deadalnix" <deadalnix gmail.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 28 May 2014 at 22:04:47 UTC, Andrej Mitrovic via
Digitalmars-d wrote:
 Personally I think there were too many talks *per day*, it was 
 hard not
 getting tired and all the talks were extremely interesting. But 
 I
 understand that it's hard for people to take more free days for 
 dconf alone.

Yup, at the end of the 3 days, I was like "What happened to my
brain !"

I guess this is a good sign. I mean, some people are traveling
from far away, and it cost a lot.

Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:

On 5/28/2014 4:16 PM, deadalnix wrote:
 I guess this is a good sign. I mean, some people are traveling
 from far away, and it cost a lot.

The reason Dconf was 3 days was to make it worthwhile for people traveling some 
distance to get there. 2 days is fine for a domestic conference, but 3 days is 
needed for an international one. 1 day is best for a purely local one.

"Dicebot" <public dicebot.lv> writes:

On Wednesday, 28 May 2014 at 23:16:58 UTC, deadalnix wrote:
 On Wednesday, 28 May 2014 at 22:04:47 UTC, Andrej Mitrovic via
 Digitalmars-d wrote:
 Personally I think there were too many talks *per day*, it was 
 hard not
 getting tired and all the talks were extremely interesting. 
 But I
 understand that it's hard for people to take more free days 
 for dconf alone.

 Yup, at the end of the 3 days, I was like "What happened to my
 brain !"

I was like "wtf has happened to my brain _and_ voice" ;)

Kind of like the idea of more public / advertising oriented 
conference but we don't have that many "casual" visitors IMHO. 
And all those bleeding edge hackers that I have seen during those 
3 days will definitely become bored if we try to add more "howto" 
stuff to main program.

"ed" <gmail gmail.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 28 May 2014 at 21:05:13 UTC, Chris Williams wrote:
 My first day at DConf, during lunch, I ended up sitting next to 
 the CTO/CEO of a startup company that was considering D as 
 their language of choice. He commented to me, and which makes 
 sense to me, that the format of the conference wasn't very well 
 geared to people who are just interested in figuring out what 
 the language is like and how to get started with it.

 His recommendation was to offer two tracks over two days 
 (instead of one over three), whith one track focussing on 
 things like how to get a development environment set up on 
 different platforms, how to debug, overview of language 
 features, etc. That way a CTO or other interested party could 
 use the conference as a way to evaluate the language for use at 
 their companies.

 I also got the sense that he was hiring, should anyone be 
 interested. Apakau.com

Does it have to split the entire DConf? What if a half-day was 
set aside for two streams:

a) a workshop for new D users with entry-level talks and maybe 
even hands-on sessions (would require attendees bring a laptop)

b) A set of very technical low-level language talks for hardcore 
D language developers.

If there are not enough for a) people are less likely to mind 
because it is only a half-day with the alternative listening to 
interesting D talks anyway.

Cheers,
ed

Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:

On 5/28/2014 5:20 PM, ed wrote:
 a) a workshop for new D users with entry-level talks and maybe even hands-on
 sessions (would require attendees bring a laptop)

We did that for Dconf 2013; having a "tutorial day" preceding the conference. 
There wasn't enough interest in it, so we cancelled it.

If there is enough interest next year, we can certainly hold it.