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digitalmars.D - D needs a programming blog and some house keeping

reply "biorelated" <biorelated gmail.com> writes:
I have only recently stated learning D,coming from 
Ruby/Python/Perl dynamic languages.  I bought TDPL and I have 
read Ali's book and I bought Adam Ruppe's D programming language 
cookbook. These are amazing books and they have taught me a lot. 
more than I ever knew and I  have to thank D and the D community 
for developing the language.

I have peeped through the fence to view the neighbour's (Rust) 
lawn and it is well kept. How do I put this? D is a fantastic 
house with a lot of amenities and fantastic family members. The 
family keeps to itself and does not make effort to showcase how 
awesome they are. Please write blog posts and reports a little 
more.  It would be great if Walter kept a programming blog and 
the same for Andre to shared personal thoughts on 
thorny/fantastic issues on D. Rather than share them with family 
only. Why? Because to grow the D family is more about adopting 
grown up children than giving birth.

Excite me the new comer, keep me busy learning. Don't let me pee 
all over the house before I find the bathroom. I mean D's 
documentation can be improved. It just takes a long time for a 
new comer to figure things out from the current docs.

I have learnt that a lot of fantastic discussion happens at the 
forums. My problem with threaded posts is that there are often 
more than 2 to 5 subtopics going on in a single thread.  I find 
it difficult to follow threads and when I do it is painful to 
sift through the discussion. I also find it difficult to watch 
video. I love to read, underline, go back to the previous 
paragraph, pause., pick from the last bookmark.  With video I 
cannot do that without a lot of effort. Maybe it is just me.

D's  mailman is often late.
D's twitter account is rarely updated. I often rely on 
programming language accounts  to learn the latest. But even a 
new D release or a new beta is often not tweeted until days 
later. Hot discussion and topics are not mentioned on the twitter 
account not even  D weekly update by Adam are spared.

Talking of 'This Week in D'(TWiD). What if TWiD became D's 
programming blog? People other than Adam can make contributions  
and when he is late or gone on holiday or got overwhelmed, 
someone else can take over. Hot discussions can be summarised on 
the blog as well. New releases and betas should be announced on 
the programming blog.

I think I am in love with the D language. I have only been here 
for a short while and my views stand to be corrected.
Jun 26 2015
next sibling parent reply Russel Winder via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
The core problem is that the Rust community has resources to do things
like:

https://internals.rust-lang.org/t/announcing-the-community-subteam/2248

whereas D seems not to. Go, like Rust, gets marketing budget both
directly and indirectly.

These days programming language take up and traction has almost, but
not quite, nothing to do with technical issues, it is about marketing
and in some cases hype.

Whereas I am starting a push to use D and Chapel from Python, Rust is
already there in the minds of the CFFI people. Go has a poor play in
this area: current idiom is use separate processes rather than link
directly.

--=20
Russel.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder ekiga.n=
et
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
Jun 26 2015
parent reply "weaselcat" <weaselcat gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 26 June 2015 at 09:05:22 UTC, Russel Winder wrote:

 The core problem is that the Rust community has resources to do 
 things like:

 https://internals.rust-lang.org/t/announcing-the-community-subteam/2248

 whereas D seems not to. Go, like Rust, gets marketing budget 
 both directly and indirectly.

 These days programming language take up and traction has 
 almost, but not quite, nothing to do with technical issues, it 
 is about marketing and in some cases hype.

 Whereas I am starting a push to use D and Chapel from Python, 
 Rust is already there in the minds of the CFFI people. Go has a 
 poor play in this area: current idiom is use separate processes 
 rather than link directly.


After watching the hilarious fiascos that have fallen upon the 
Rust community that I won't go into, I hope D never gets 
community resources like that.
Jun 26 2015
next sibling parent Russel Winder via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On Fri, 2015-06-26 at 09:19 +0000, weaselcat via Digitalmars-d wrote:

=20


[=E2=80=A6]

 After watching the hilarious fiascos that have fallen upon the=20
 Rust community that I won't go into, I hope D never gets=20
 community resources like that.


You have to give pointers to data about this or risk having your
comment seen as a null comment.

--=20
Russel.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder ekiga.n=
et
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
Jun 26 2015
prev sibling parent reply Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 6/26/15 2:19 AM, weaselcat wrote:

 After watching the hilarious fiascos that have fallen upon the Rust
 community that I won't go into


Prolly worth going into. We should learn from the good and bad of other 
languages (not to mention ours). -- Andrei
Jun 26 2015
parent "David DeWitt" <dkdewitt gmail.com> writes:
Im new to D too and while blogs are great, I don't care "that" 
much for them or twitter.  I think the most important step for D 
is to get more "official" tools and packages.  If you want to get 
ppl interested in D beyond a core group you need solid web 
frameworks and official clients/libraries for some of the major 
tools used.  I look forward to working on some of these things 
but most people just want them built and thats what the language 
needs.  If you use Python or Java then you know you have the 
tools for databases, Kafka, Redis, Elasticsearch, web frameworks, 
etc..  Thats where D needs to be.
Jun 26 2015
prev sibling next sibling parent reply "Chris" <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:
On Friday, 26 June 2015 at 08:47:05 UTC, biorelated wrote:

 I have only recently stated learning D,coming from 
 Ruby/Python/Perl dynamic languages.  I bought TDPL and I have 
 read Ali's book and I bought Adam Ruppe's D programming 
 language cookbook. These are amazing books and they have taught 
 me a lot. more than I ever knew and I  have to thank D and the 
 D community for developing the language.

 I have peeped through the fence to view the neighbour's (Rust) 
 lawn and it is well kept. How do I put this? D is a fantastic 
 house with a lot of amenities and fantastic family members. The 
 family keeps to itself and does not make effort to showcase how 
 awesome they are. Please write blog posts and reports a little 
 more.  It would be great if Walter kept a programming blog and 
 the same for Andre to shared personal thoughts on 
 thorny/fantastic issues on D. Rather than share them with 
 family only. Why? Because to grow the D family is more about 
 adopting grown up children than giving birth.

 Excite me the new comer, keep me busy learning. Don't let me 
 pee all over the house before I find the bathroom. I mean D's 
 documentation can be improved. It just takes a long time for a 
 new comer to figure things out from the current docs.

 I have learnt that a lot of fantastic discussion happens at the 
 forums. My problem with threaded posts is that there are often 
 more than 2 to 5 subtopics going on in a single thread.  I find 
 it difficult to follow threads and when I do it is painful to 
 sift through the discussion. I also find it difficult to watch 
 video. I love to read, underline, go back to the previous 
 paragraph, pause., pick from the last bookmark.  With video I 
 cannot do that without a lot of effort. Maybe it is just me.

 D's  mailman is often late.
 D's twitter account is rarely updated. I often rely on 
 programming language accounts  to learn the latest. But even a 
 new D release or a new beta is often not tweeted until days 
 later. Hot discussion and topics are not mentioned on the 
 twitter account not even  D weekly update by Adam are spared.

 Talking of 'This Week in D'(TWiD). What if TWiD became D's 
 programming blog? People other than Adam can make contributions
  and when he is late or gone on holiday or got overwhelmed, 
 someone else can take over. Hot discussions can be summarised 
 on the blog as well. New releases and betas should be announced 
 on the programming blog.

 I think I am in love with the D language. I have only been here 
 for a short while and my views stand to be corrected.


We have discussed these issues. Russel is right, success is about 
marketing and hype, not about quality. Nobody will give a damn 
about D as long as it's community based and not committee/company 
based. D is fighting an uphill battle and the only way is to keep 
on keeping on, knowing it is the right thing to do.

The only way you can help D is:

1. use it (Yes! This is more important than anything else.)
2. contribute to it:
  - phobos
  - 3rd party libraries
  - ecosystem
  - tools
  - benchmarks
  - documentation
  - tutorials
  - programs
  - compilers
  - etc.

There is no other way. You want something, you do it, nobody else 
will. It's not so hard to get started:

http://wiki.dlang.org/Pull_Requests

A few commands and you're there. And don't forget: nobody here 
will bite you. Ask questions on "Learn", no matter how "stupid" 
or trivial. Read the discussions. Think and learn, which is what 
got you here in the first place.

Welcome to D! :-)
Jun 26 2015
parent "biorelated" <biorelated gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 26 June 2015 at 10:16:33 UTC, Chris wrote:

 1. use it (Yes! This is more important than anything else.)
 2. contribute to it:
  - phobos
  - 3rd party libraries
  - ecosystem
  - tools
  - benchmarks
  - documentation
  - tutorials
  - programs
  - compilers
  - etc.

 There is no other way. You want something, you do it, nobody 
 else will. It's not so hard to get started:

 http://wiki.dlang.org/Pull_Requests

 A few commands and you're there. And don't forget: nobody here 
 will bite you. Ask questions on "Learn", no matter how "stupid" 
 or trivial. Read the discussions. Think and learn, which is 
 what got you here in the first place.

 Welcome to D! :-)


I will roll my sleeves as I get more confident and useful. To get 
where D is without corporate backing is a huge effort by any 
means. And I am sure, a lot of good design decisions have 
contributed to this. So thank you for the Welcome and I look 
forward to contributing.


:)
Jun 26 2015
prev sibling parent reply "Dejan Lekic" <dejan.lekic gmail.com> writes:
You will not believe how many D programming related blogs are out 
there...
Jun 26 2015
parent reply Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On 6/26/2015 7:41 PM, Dejan Lekic wrote:

 You will not believe how many D programming related blogs are out there...


Many of which can be accessed through:

http://planet.dsource.org/
Jun 26 2015
parent reply "Chris" <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:
On Friday, 26 June 2015 at 12:28:57 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

 On 6/26/2015 7:41 PM, Dejan Lekic wrote:

 You will not believe how many D programming related blogs are 
 out there...


 Many of which can be accessed through:

 http://planet.dsource.org/


The link above has frozen Firefox twice. Suppose it's the graphix.
Jun 26 2015
parent Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On 6/26/2015 10:01 PM, Chris wrote:

 On Friday, 26 June 2015 at 12:28:57 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

 On 6/26/2015 7:41 PM, Dejan Lekic wrote:

 You will not believe how many D programming related blogs are out
 there...


 Many of which can be accessed through:

 http://planet.dsource.org/


 The link above has frozen Firefox twice. Suppose it's the graphix.


Try this one:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/dplanet
Jun 26 2015