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digitalmars.D - DlangUI and CL Tools

reply Chris <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:
I am referring to threads [1], [2] and [3].

1. DlangUI is making progress and looks very promising. Is there 
any chance that the DLang foundation/community would embrace this 
project (more manpower)? I've been fiddling around with GUIs a 
bit recently. GtkD is great and all the other wrappers are cool, 
but with wrappers you always lag behind and depend on other 
sources/libs. I played around with JavaFX+Scene Builder and it's 
pretty cool. Maybe we should consider our own GUI like JavaFX, 
and DlangUI could be the one.

2. D is a good option when it comes to CL utilities. Whenever I 
have to write one, it's in D. Maybe we should explore this more. 
Imagine if people started to write more and more CL tools in D. 
It'd be great PR. It would also help us to deal with the weak 
spots.


[1] 
http://forum.dlang.org/thread/cdekkumjynhqoxvmgjze forum.dlang.org
[2] 
http://forum.dlang.org/thread/yiguvkubszjgddgjygef forum.dlang.org
[3] 
http://forum.dlang.org/thread/epjkkbbzdsxjlauzbmvy forum.dlang.org
Apr 22 2016
parent reply Dicebot <public dicebot.lv> writes:
On 04/22/2016 01:42 PM, Chris wrote:
 I am referring to threads [1], [2] and [3].
 
 1. DlangUI is making progress and looks very promising. Is there any
 chance that the DLang foundation/community would embrace this project
 (more manpower)?
Common misconception is that D team has any manpower it can potentially invest into promising projects. It doesn't. Some volunteers are more commited than others but there is no one (not even Andrei or Walter) who can tell others what spend their time one. There are both good and bad consequences from that but it is simply how things work right now. As such, only thing that can attract more manpower to any project (including DLangUI) is for author/maintainer to make it useful for many people and to make it easy and pleasant for them to contribute (see vibe.d case as an example).
Apr 22 2016
parent reply Chris <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:
On Friday, 22 April 2016 at 10:59:16 UTC, Dicebot wrote:
 On 04/22/2016 01:42 PM, Chris wrote:
 I am referring to threads [1], [2] and [3].
 
 1. DlangUI is making progress and looks very promising. Is 
 there any chance that the DLang foundation/community would 
 embrace this project (more manpower)?
Common misconception is that D team has any manpower it can potentially invest into promising projects. It doesn't. Some volunteers are more commited than others but there is no one (not even Andrei or Walter) who can tell others what spend their time one. There are both good and bad consequences from that but it is simply how things work right now. As such, only thing that can attract more manpower to any project (including DLangUI) is for author/maintainer to make it useful for many people and to make it easy and pleasant for them to contribute (see vibe.d case as an example).
We all know that. But we can at least try to keep projects going that are promising and important in the long run. The thing is that D is gaining momentum and we should cease the opportunity to extend it beyond mere language features. If I compare D to where it was 2 or 3 years ago, D has taken some giant steps (look at the books that have been written about D). I recently dabbled in Java, and I have to say that D is way ahead of it. Java, albeit nice, safe and cosy (safety helmets must be worn at all times), feels like a straight jacket and they've just now started to remove some of the laces (so that you can scratch yourself). Imo, D is definitely on the right track, that's why it's time to extend it and add a GUI etc. to it, which of course is not the job of the core developers. But it wouldn't hurt to promote the development of DlangUI.
Apr 22 2016
next sibling parent Chris <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:
 D has taken some giant steps
s/taken/made
Apr 22 2016
prev sibling parent reply Dicebot <public dicebot.lv> writes:
On 04/22/2016 02:34 PM, Chris wrote:
 Common misconception is that D team has any manpower it can
 potentially invest into promising projects. It doesn't. Some
 volunteers are more commited than others but there is no one (not even
 Andrei or Walter) who can tell others what spend their time one. There
 are both good and bad consequences from that but it is simply how
 things work right now.

 As such, only thing that can attract more manpower to any project
 (including DLangUI) is for author/maintainer to make it useful for
 many people and to make it easy and pleasant for them to contribute
 (see vibe.d case as an example).
We all know that. But we can at least try to keep projects going that are promising and important in the long run.
But who are those "we" you refer to? :) Or, to rephrase, do you really envision a volunteer abandoning any project/task he has current personal interest in to work on some third-party project (he doesn't need) because of its strategical value? Call be grumpy and skeptical but open-source pretty much never works like that. Specifically calls for arms like yours have been done many times before and always with exactly 0 effective outcome. I am not saying that you shouldn't call for arms, just don't be surprised/offended if nothing happens as a result :)
Apr 22 2016
parent Chris <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:
On Friday, 22 April 2016 at 11:46:12 UTC, Dicebot wrote:

 But who are those "we" you refer to? :) Or, to rephrase, do you 
 really envision a volunteer abandoning any project/task he has 
 current personal interest in to work on some third-party 
 project (he doesn't need) because of its strategical value? 
 Call be grumpy and skeptical but open-source pretty much never 
 works like that. Specifically calls for arms like yours have 
 been done many times before and always with exactly 0 effective 
 outcome.

 I am not saying that you shouldn't call for arms, just don't be 
 surprised/offended if nothing happens as a result :)
Yes, yes. We all know that. We've been here long enough. I'm being neither idealistic nor naive. But still, D has improved drastically over just 3 r 4 years. So there is definitely a "we" out there somewhere. And there might be people out there who think that they would like to contribute to D but not necessarily to Phobos. It could be anything, from artwork (icons) for DlangUI to testing, creating themes, writing plugins. If people have the feeling there's a future for the project, they will contribute. It's not a call to arms. It's more like saying "Look, here's something that is good. And you can improve it." I just think the time has come to go beyond the language and add some bells and whistles. With DConf coming up, maybe it's worth talking about things like that too.
Apr 22 2016