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digitalmars.D - Found on proggit: Nim receives funding from a company (D should be

reply Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
Announced last week, the Nim team will be adding two full-time 
paid devs and setting up grants for needed projects with this new 
funding:

https://our.status.im/status-partners-with-the-team-behind-the-programming-language-nim/
https://nim-lang.org/blog/2018/08/07/nim-partners-with-status.html

D should also be trying to raise resources like this, though it 
doesn't have to be corporate funding from one source. This 
company funding Nim raised $100 million in an ICO last year to 
build some kind of cryptocurrency-oriented mobile apps platform:

https://www.inc.com/brian-d-evans/status-ico-raised-over-100-million-for-ethereum-powered-dapps-on-ios-and-androi.html

There are risks, of course. This company could flame out, like 
many of these new cryptocurrency companies do, leaving Nim 
without ongoing funding. Their priorities may not align with the 
Nim core team.

However, there are other ways to raise funds. Companies using D 
could use the existing bountysource page to put up bounties for 
features/fixes or projects they need, to which community members 
who need some particular feature/fix could also donate:

https://www.bountysource.com/teams/d

There are two primary factors in the success of any project, 
design and resources. I'm reasonably happy with the design of D 
and how technical decisions are being made. I think this is a 
core strength of D.

However, it appears the D core team has so far been doing a 
horrible job in gathering resources for the project. I'm not 
privy to any internal discussions or if this is being discussed 
at all. But it needs to be a priority for the ongoing growth of 
this project.
Aug 13 2018
next sibling parent I =?UTF-8?B?TGluZHN0csO2bQ==?= <nota.real address.com> writes:
On Monday, 13 August 2018 at 09:50:29 UTC, Joakim wrote:
 Announced last week, the Nim team will be adding two full-time 
 paid devs and setting up grants for needed projects with this 
 new funding:

 https://our.status.im/status-partners-with-the-team-behind-the-programming-language-nim/
 https://nim-lang.org/blog/2018/08/07/nim-partners-with-status.html

 D should also be trying to raise resources like this, though it 
 doesn't have to be corporate funding from one source. This 
 company funding Nim raised $100 million in an ICO last year to 
 build some kind of cryptocurrency-oriented mobile apps platform:

 https://www.inc.com/brian-d-evans/status-ico-raised-over-100-million-for-ethereum-powered-dapps-on-ios-and-androi.html

 There are risks, of course. This company could flame out, like 
 many of these new cryptocurrency companies do, leaving Nim 
 without ongoing funding. Their priorities may not align with 
 the Nim core team.

 However, there are other ways to raise funds. Companies using D 
 could use the existing bountysource page to put up bounties for 
 features/fixes or projects they need, to which community 
 members who need some particular feature/fix could also donate:

 https://www.bountysource.com/teams/d

 There are two primary factors in the success of any project, 
 design and resources. I'm reasonably happy with the design of D 
 and how technical decisions are being made. I think this is a 
 core strength of D.

 However, it appears the D core team has so far been doing a 
 horrible job in gathering resources for the project. I'm not 
 privy to any internal discussions or if this is being discussed 
 at all. But it needs to be a priority for the ongoing growth of 
 this project.
I do agree on your points Joakim. The "orgs using D"-section has seen growth over the time I've been here so that's something, but it'd be good if the collaborations would rise above the news threshold. Also, has the bounty been suggested to the organizations using D? It could help develop aspects of D that are needed to break through into the wider world. As much fun as it is to do personal projects, D needs the features that are required by companies or other organizations to grow. D also needs the funding to operate the infrastructure, advertise and pay out something as an incentive for what to build to help those wishing to dev (more) full-time. The latest blog post about funding code-d was a step into the right direction IMO. It would be nice to hear from the core team if something is in the Works besides the code-d-project. If help is needed on where or how to try and get support, I can volunteer with what I know about the subject to throw around ideas or come up with plans. I have only a BBA so if someone knows more, it might be good if they volunteered instead/too.
Aug 13 2018
prev sibling next sibling parent reply bachmeier <no spam.net> writes:
On Monday, 13 August 2018 at 09:50:29 UTC, Joakim wrote:
 Announced last week, the Nim team will be adding two full-time 
 paid devs and setting up grants for needed projects with this 
 new funding:

 https://our.status.im/status-partners-with-the-team-behind-the-programming-language-nim/
 https://nim-lang.org/blog/2018/08/07/nim-partners-with-status.html

 D should also be trying to raise resources like this, though it 
 doesn't have to be corporate funding from one source. This 
 company funding Nim raised $100 million in an ICO last year to 
 build some kind of cryptocurrency-oriented mobile apps platform:
We now have the D Language Foundation. They are doing what they can to raise this type of funding AFAICT. We may already have more than the equivalent of two full-time devs being funded. There are graduate students working on the compiler, Symmetry Autumn of Code (not an insignificant amount of money), and Symmetry has funded a lot of good work by Ilya that forms the foundation for scientific/data computing. Then there is the successful funding to improve the IDE situation. It's great for Nim that a company has decided they like the language and want to help get it into the state that they need to conduct their business. I'm not sure the risk of losing that kind of funding and being willing to change the language to suit one company's needs is a perfect solution. Rich Hickey actually stopped taking that kind of money, because everyone thought they could attach strings to it.
Aug 13 2018
next sibling parent reply I =?UTF-8?B?TGluZHN0csO2bQ==?= <nota.real address.com> writes:
On Monday, 13 August 2018 at 11:42:57 UTC, bachmeier wrote:
 On Monday, 13 August 2018 at 09:50:29 UTC, Joakim wrote:
 Announced last week, the Nim team will be adding two full-time 
 paid devs and setting up grants for needed projects with this 
 new funding:

 https://our.status.im/status-partners-with-the-team-behind-the-programming-language-nim/
 https://nim-lang.org/blog/2018/08/07/nim-partners-with-status.html

 D should also be trying to raise resources like this, though 
 it doesn't have to be corporate funding from one source. This 
 company funding Nim raised $100 million in an ICO last year to 
 build some kind of cryptocurrency-oriented mobile apps 
 platform:
We now have the D Language Foundation. They are doing what they can to raise this type of funding AFAICT. We may already have more than the equivalent of two full-time devs being funded. There are graduate students working on the compiler, Symmetry Autumn of Code (not an insignificant amount of money), and Symmetry has funded a lot of good work by Ilya that forms the foundation for scientific/data computing. Then there is the successful funding to improve the IDE situation. It's great for Nim that a company has decided they like the language and want to help get it into the state that they need to conduct their business. I'm not sure the risk of losing that kind of funding and being willing to change the language to suit one company's needs is a perfect solution. Rich Hickey actually stopped taking that kind of money, because everyone thought they could attach strings to it.
Ah. This cleared things up a bit. Thank you. It seemed to be one way but apparently wasn't. I stand corrected. In that case things look decent enough for me to stop worrying about this too much. And yeah, if it's a common occurance that companies try to highjack things, then it's better to be careful. Enough things have been run to the ground by Big Bucks starting to meddle in things without knowhow or vision. Didn't know it was that common.
Aug 13 2018
parent bachmeier <no spam.net> writes:
On Monday, 13 August 2018 at 12:06:25 UTC, I Lindström wrote:
 In that case things look decent enough for me to stop worrying 
 about this too much. And yeah, if it's a common occurance that 
 companies try to highjack things, then it's better to be 
 careful. Enough things have been run to the ground by Big Bucks 
 starting to meddle in things without knowhow or vision. Didn't 
 know it was that common.
I want to be careful not to give the impression that I have inside knowledge on these things. If you're getting outside funding, there is uniquely one thing that you focus on - making money. The two devs that are working on Nim full-time will not be working on things that are in the interest of anyone other than the company paying their salaries. That may or may not be good for the community.
Aug 13 2018
prev sibling parent Laeeth Isharc <Laeeth laeeth.com> writes:
It's always good to steal insights from wherever you legitimately 
can.  There's often more treasure in areas utterly different from 
your field of activity than in those that on the face of it fall 
into the same category.

I think that in the hedge fund business for example I've learnt 
more in recent years from choirs, alternative wine makers that 
break the rules, open source communities, the Rotary Club, 
observations of artistic scenes, pondering what the punk Tom 
Jennings told me back in the day, and so on than I have from 
competitors in my field.

I think each language community is founded on its own unique 
principles and trying to squash it onto a box that doesn't fit 
isn't going to go anywhere.

D doesn't need a big corporate sponsor.  It already has some 
corporate sponsors and now there is a beginning made with the D 
Foundation and enterprise adoption across many different sectors 
it's just a matter of nourishing the beginning we have and 
helping it unfold.

The idea of any corporate sponsor having much luck with 
influencing the development of the language in a direction it 
doesn't want to go anyway is most entertaining to contemplate.  
Remedy Games asked for attributes I think - a really good idea - 
and even then there was grumbling.  Not that I mind the grumbling.

You know money is valuable but creative energy and involvement is 
much more so, even though you can't eat the latter.

I am hoping in time that we would inspire others to see the 
benefits of being involved and I think that will happen.

ICO sponsorship or from divers companies across many domains - I 
know which one I think creates the best foundation for future 
success.

I did try funding bounty source but there doesn't seem to be much 
action there.

I hope Nim succeeds too - it looks like a nice language and it's 
an amazing accomplishment for a small core team.  Languages are 
not after all in a battle to the death - life is not a zero-sum 
game.

My biggest challenge right now is hiring more of the right kind 
of programmers given that it takes a lot of time to find them the 
conventional way and I would like to keep raising the bar and not 
lower it.

It's a firm where people matter so if someone wants to work on 
open source projects that are in a direction that helps the 
direction of the firm one day a week then it's something we can 
be open to for the right person.

And if we end up continuing to find more strong people via the D 
community then it's easy to justify increasing our contribution.  
Headhunters charge 20% of first year's salary, after all, and 
they mostly don't have good taste and it ends up taking a lot of 
time I don't have.

In a world where the system of credentials has broken down, what 
is left that still works?  Focal points, resonance, sample work, 
and recognition by those who have reputation already.

Maybe in a decade we will be reminiscing about those wonderful 
times before people realised there are great jobs in D.  Success 
ultimately attracts a different kind of person - every moment in 
time is good for some purpose.
Aug 16 2018
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Mike Franklin <slavo5150 yahoo.com> writes:
On Monday, 13 August 2018 at 09:50:29 UTC, Joakim wrote:
 Announced last week, the Nim team will be adding two full-time 
 paid devs and setting up grants for needed projects with this 
 new funding:
:jealous:
 However, there are other ways to raise funds. Companies using D 
 could use the existing bountysource page to put up bounties for 
 features/fixes or projects they need, to which community 
 members who need some particular feature/fix could also donate:

 https://www.bountysource.com/teams/d
I think bountysource would work if the bounties were significantly higher, but there are also the funding options at https://opencollective.com/dlang Looking on the right column of the page there are several D enthusiasts contributing their hard-earned money to D. Maybe there's a better option for the masses, besides a T-shirt and a DConf discount, that might encourage more donors. For example, I might contribute somewhere between $100 or more if I could get some attention on some bugs/features that I care about (assuming I couldn't implement them myself). Maybe I'll post a bounty in the near future and see how it goes. Right now, I'm the only one I know of working on the #dbugfix stuff, but I'm finding the bugs submitted this round exceptionally difficult. I don't know if I'll succeed with a fix this round (Sorry!), but contact me directly, or post an announcement on the forum, if you have a bug that you're willing to motivate with a financial contribution to the D Foundation, and I'll personally take a look at it. I'm generally only capable of fixing some of the more simple bugs, as my skills and understanding of DMD are quite limited, but I promise I'll try. Mike
Aug 13 2018
parent reply Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Tuesday, 14 August 2018 at 02:49:58 UTC, Mike Franklin wrote:
 On Monday, 13 August 2018 at 09:50:29 UTC, Joakim wrote:
 Announced last week, the Nim team will be adding two full-time 
 paid devs and setting up grants for needed projects with this 
 new funding:
:jealous:
 However, there are other ways to raise funds. Companies using 
 D could use the existing bountysource page to put up bounties 
 for features/fixes or projects they need, to which community 
 members who need some particular feature/fix could also donate:

 https://www.bountysource.com/teams/d
I think bountysource would work if the bounties were significantly higher, but there are also the funding options at https://opencollective.com/dlang
Yes, some of those bounties are too low for the amount of work, but nothing stops others who find them important to increase the bounty incrementally.
 Looking on the right column of the page there are several D 
 enthusiasts contributing their hard-earned money to D.  Maybe 
 there's a better option for the masses, besides a T-shirt and a 
 DConf discount, that might encourage more donors.  For example, 
 I might contribute somewhere between $100 or more if I could 
 get some attention on some bugs/features that I care about 
 (assuming I couldn't implement them myself).  Maybe I'll post a 
 bounty in the near future and see how it goes.
A variation on that appears to be in the cards, as they've said there will be more funding targets: https://forum.dlang.org/post/orvcznlvraunkksjdgez forum.dlang.org I don't really care which website is used, bountysource or opencollective or whatever, but the community is unlikely to contribute unless they have a clear idea of where the money is going, which bountysource does a better job of showing right now.
 Right now, I'm the only one I know of working on the #dbugfix 
 stuff, but I'm finding the bugs submitted this round 
 exceptionally difficult.  I don't know if I'll succeed with a 
 fix this round (Sorry!), but contact me directly, or post an 
 announcement on the forum, if you have a bug that you're 
 willing to motivate with a financial contribution to the D 
 Foundation, and I'll personally take a look at it.  I'm 
 generally only capable of fixing some of the more simple bugs, 
 as my skills and understanding of DMD are quite limited, but I 
 promise I'll try.
This is not about me: I personally don't have any blocker bugs that I'm worried about. I'm concerned about the general pace of D development: I don't think we're as focused or organized on gathering resources as we should be. My preferred model is to turn D into a partially proprietary product, but I guess the core team doesn't like that approach: https://forum.dlang.org/thread/okuzksqzczprvuklpzaw forum.dlang.org Back when I was a little kid decades ago, I had a neighbor who used to build model trains in his garage, what he did in his spare time. I remember seeing it then and being thrilled that it snaked all over his work area. 99% of open source projects are the "model trains" of software devs, something they work on for fun in their spare time, and never get used widely. To get into the 1% of OSS projects that are actually widely used, you need some way to gather resources to grow the project. There's the linux model where you get a bunch of consulting and support companies to use you. There's the llvm/clang model where you become a product in a large company, part of their portfolio alongside proprietary products or modules that pay the bills. There's the Firefox model where you sell ads alongside the OSS product. There's new models where you use crowdfunding sites like kickstarter or opencollective. D has so far used very little of any of these models. This project can give off the impression that it is simply a big model train for Walter and Andrei, a hobby that they've retired to work on. Instead, I'd like to see D much more widely used, which means work needs to be done on gathering resources beyond what the project has now.
Aug 14 2018
next sibling parent Mike Franklin <slavo5150 yahoo.com> writes:
On Tuesday, 14 August 2018 at 07:05:12 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 if you have a bug ...
This is not about me:
Sorry, I mean the plural "you", as in anyone reading this thread. Mike
Aug 14 2018
prev sibling parent reply Laeeth Isharc <Laeeth laeeth.com> writes:
On Tuesday, 14 August 2018 at 07:05:12 UTC, Joakim wrote:
 On Tuesday, 14 August 2018 at 02:49:58 UTC, Mike Franklin wrote:
 On Monday, 13 August 2018 at 09:50:29 UTC, Joakim wrote:
 Announced last week, the Nim team will be adding two 
 full-time paid devs and setting up grants for needed projects 
 with this new funding:
:jealous:
 However, there are other ways to raise funds. Companies using 
 D could use the existing bountysource page to put up bounties 
 for features/fixes or projects they need, to which community 
 members who need some particular feature/fix could also 
 donate:

 https://www.bountysource.com/teams/d
I think bountysource would work if the bounties were significantly higher, but there are also the funding options at https://opencollective.com/dlang
Yes, some of those bounties are too low for the amount of work, but nothing stops others who find them important to increase the bounty incrementally.
 Looking on the right column of the page there are several D 
 enthusiasts contributing their hard-earned money to D.  Maybe 
 there's a better option for the masses, besides a T-shirt and 
 a DConf discount, that might encourage more donors.  For 
 example, I might contribute somewhere between $100 or more if 
 I could get some attention on some bugs/features that I care 
 about (assuming I couldn't implement them myself).  Maybe I'll 
 post a bounty in the near future and see how it goes.
A variation on that appears to be in the cards, as they've said there will be more funding targets: https://forum.dlang.org/post/orvcznlvraunkksjdgez forum.dlang.org I don't really care which website is used, bountysource or opencollective or whatever, but the community is unlikely to contribute unless they have a clear idea of where the money is going, which bountysource does a better job of showing right now.
 Right now, I'm the only one I know of working on the #dbugfix 
 stuff, but I'm finding the bugs submitted this round 
 exceptionally difficult.  I don't know if I'll succeed with a 
 fix this round (Sorry!), but contact me directly, or post an 
 announcement on the forum, if you have a bug that you're 
 willing to motivate with a financial contribution to the D 
 Foundation, and I'll personally take a look at it.  I'm 
 generally only capable of fixing some of the more simple bugs, 
 as my skills and understanding of DMD are quite limited, but I 
 promise I'll try.
This is not about me: I personally don't have any blocker bugs that I'm worried about. I'm concerned about the general pace of D development: I don't think we're as focused or organized on gathering resources as we should be. My preferred model is to turn D into a partially proprietary product, but I guess the core team doesn't like that approach: https://forum.dlang.org/thread/okuzksqzczprvuklpzaw forum.dlang.org Back when I was a little kid decades ago, I had a neighbor who used to build model trains in his garage, what he did in his spare time. I remember seeing it then and being thrilled that it snaked all over his work area. 99% of open source projects are the "model trains" of software devs, something they work on for fun in their spare time, and never get used widely. To get into the 1% of OSS projects that are actually widely used, you need some way to gather resources to grow the project. There's the linux model where you get a bunch of consulting and support companies to use you. There's the llvm/clang model where you become a product in a large company, part of their portfolio alongside proprietary products or modules that pay the bills. There's the Firefox model where you sell ads alongside the OSS product. There's new models where you use crowdfunding sites like kickstarter or opencollective. D has so far used very little of any of these models. This project can give off the impression that it is simply a big model train for Walter and Andrei, a hobby that they've retired to work on. Instead, I'd like to see D much more widely used, which means work needs to be done on gathering resources beyond what the project has now.
Have you read Peter Thiel's Zero to One and seen his YouTube talks on secrets etc? He says what I have always believed. I think market share is a legitimate approach if that's your cup of tea, but dominating a niche is a much better one if it fits you. I personally just by virtue of who I am as a person found that as a life strategy having a very high appeal to a tiny minority of people suits me by far better (I like to think they are the best people but who is really to say as it depends on your point of view). I truly don't think it's relevant what most people think of D at this point. The world is a very big place and there's room for many languages and I don't think there will be another C - that was a creature of its time, and time and conditions have changed since then. Most code is enterprise code that nobody much hears about and I guess most programmers are paid to work on enterprise code. The tech guys get an inordinate share of attention because of social reasons and because the nature of their business fits with talking much more about what they are doing. But I don't think they represent a majority of the code that's written. D is a very practical language and that means it's quite a good tool for enterprise users if such users are at this point rather unusual sorts of people able to make up their own minds in the absence of marketing and advice from consultants - they also need to be people that have the authority to decide to do what's best without persuading a committee. We are in an age that doesn't tend to be very patient about enduring temporary discomfort - with D the discomfort is all upfront. So you need to be both imaginative to see the longer term benefits and an unusual sort of person to press through the early discomfort. This makes D a great hiring filter if you are at the stage of business development where we are today, but it's not going to convince many pointy-headed bosses. So much the worse for the pointy-headed bosses. People are using D to do real work. As people do that they naturally need to make improvements, and why wouldn't you open source those ? The way a broader audience comes to D will be as a result of early successes and because of the calibre of the people that are earlier adopters of D. And more importantly because of the calibre of people in the D community. Throw a stone at dconf - if you hit a bad programmer you probably missed and hit someone from a different conference in the adjacent ballroom. In the outside world things are not always like that. If you want D to be more widely used then focus on what can be done to help the people who are already using it in a small way to succeed and use it further, and help people who want to use it and almost can but face impediments that might not be difficult to overcome but are from where they are sitting. It's much better to focus on what's to hand and growing steadily than to worry about trying to get D to a certain stage of popularity. These things aren't under human control. The setup must be there but then things happen when a bunch of conditions inside and out come together all at the same time. There's a magic when someone solves their own problem that's real for them. Goldman Sachs have their own internal languages for charting and analysing data. Pretty good stuff for the 1990s but they had a whole team working on them full-time. Me, I wanted a DSL too for similar if more nuanced reasons, but my resources were considerably less. Some of my evenings and weekends and a couple of very talented part-time developers. I knew of Pegged and had played with it, but it didn't become that vivid that it wouldn't be that bad to write the whole thing till I had dinner with Bastian at dconf. Why bother writing a DSL? Because it's by far easier to register and Python. And one can impose restrictions that don't reduce power much but make integration of various codebases and services across the firm much easier. I wrote it for one purpose and turns out it's useful for others I never even thought of. Our risk reports across the firm are being rewritten in it and now I'm wondering about accounting. I actually wrote it originally to do what Bloomberg custom expressions should perform but never will. Anyway that's the path to it being used more I think. People you have never heard of adopting it in a small way and then in a larger way and then sharing their experiences with others. I don't even want to think about the time I spent manually translating headers for C libraries. Now with DPP that's no longer a problem. In time it will probably work for C++ libraries too. The barrier to introducing D into an existing C codebase just keeps coming down. I use EMSI containers. They at least downloaded excel-d. So there's a positive spillover dynamic already underway. Give it time and the consequences will become more evident.
Aug 16 2018
parent Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Friday, 17 August 2018 at 00:06:27 UTC, Laeeth Isharc wrote:
 On Tuesday, 14 August 2018 at 07:05:12 UTC, Joakim wrote:
 [...]
Have you read Peter Thiel's Zero to One and seen his YouTube talks on secrets etc? [...]
Nothing here contradicts my stated goals and method: increasing the usage and adoption of the D language by the community paying for more work on the language and libraries. I think there should be a marketplace in such paid work on D, one that largely doesn't exist right now. In your language of economics, that market isn't clearing. Why is this? It could be there hasn't been enough sustained effort to create a market. It could be there are simply too few buyers. It could be there is a culture of doing everything for yourself. It could be some OSS people dislike money being involved. It could be people are happy to free-ride off major voluntary contributors like Walter, Andrei, Iain, and Martin and don't care or need to see D speed up its development. It could be I'm an outlier in wanting D to get more resources and move faster. We shall see.
Aug 17 2018
prev sibling parent reply Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.com> writes:
On 8/13/18 5:50 AM, Joakim wrote:
 Announced last week, the Nim team will be adding two full-time paid devs 
 and setting up grants for needed projects with this new funding:
 
 https://our.status.im/status-partners-with-the-team-behind-the-progr
mming-language-nim/ 
 
 https://nim-lang.org/blog/2018/08/07/nim-partners-with-status.html
 
 D should also be trying to raise resources like this, though it doesn't 
 have to be corporate funding from one source. This company funding Nim 
 raised $100 million in an ICO last year to build some kind of 
 cryptocurrency-oriented mobile apps platform:
 
 https://www.inc.com/brian-d-evans/status-ico-raised-over-100-million-for-ethereum-powered-dapps-on
ios-and-androi.html 
 
 
 There are risks, of course. This company could flame out, like many of 
 these new cryptocurrency companies do, leaving Nim without ongoing 
 funding. Their priorities may not align with the Nim core team.
 
 However, there are other ways to raise funds. Companies using D could 
 use the existing bountysource page to put up bounties for features/fixes 
 or projects they need, to which community members who need some 
 particular feature/fix could also donate:
 
 https://www.bountysource.com/teams/d
 
 There are two primary factors in the success of any project, design and 
 resources. I'm reasonably happy with the design of D and how technical 
 decisions are being made. I think this is a core strength of D.
 
 However, it appears the D core team has so far been doing a horrible job 
 in gathering resources for the project. I'm not privy to any internal 
 discussions or if this is being discussed at all. But it needs to be a 
 priority for the ongoing growth of this project.
Thanks for the info. That's good for Nim and something we could definitely benefit from as well. Currently, Sebastian Wilzbach and Razvan Nitu, both students, are working full time with the Foundation. Mike is our publishing and general PR person, working a reliable part time. We are in talks with a few more students from Romania and Brazil. Our early experiments with bountysource were sadly unsuccessful. I'm not writing it off but we'd probably need a new angle for a new round of experimentation. Suggestions are welcome. Regarding corporate sponsorship, we have been public about being interested, but we haven't exactly beaten off offers with a stick. I have personally asked our top users in several instances for assistance. There has been some, but not to the extent of allocating one or more full-time engineers. Shout out to Laeeth Isharc whose enterprise has been far and away the most generous, and to Weka as well for sharing with us some time and resources at a crucial juncture for the company. We've always been glad to take suggestions from individual collaborators. Mike Parker would be the person to reach out to. What would be best is to get some concrete action; historically, the typical suggestion came in the form "here's this great idea, you go work on it". Even that is fine if the idea is fleshed out and argued convincingly. Better yet, there's no better proof that an idea is good than to actually execute it to demonstrable benefit. Thanks, Andrei
Aug 15 2018
next sibling parent reply Matheus <a a.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 15 August 2018 at 20:45:34 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
 ... We are in talks with a few more students from Romania and 
 Brazil...
I'm from Brazil and I use D for hobby projects. It would be nice to present them later, in fact I was interested to create D group around here and maybe these Brazilian students may help. Matheus.
Aug 15 2018
parent reply Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 8/15/18 5:31 PM, Matheus wrote:
 On Wednesday, 15 August 2018 at 20:45:34 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
 ... We are in talks with a few more students from Romania and Brazil...
I'm from Brazil and I use D for hobby projects. It would be nice to present them later, in fact I was interested to create D group around here and maybe these Brazilian students may help. Matheus.
Will keep that in mind. BTW there's a fledgling idea to hold a C++/D/systems programming conference in Belo Horizonte.
Aug 15 2018
next sibling parent viniarck <viniarck gmail.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 15 August 2018 at 22:12:55 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
 On 8/15/18 5:31 PM, Matheus wrote:
 On Wednesday, 15 August 2018 at 20:45:34 UTC, Andrei 
 Alexandrescu wrote:
 ... We are in talks with a few more students from Romania and 
 Brazil...
I'm from Brazil and I use D for hobby projects. It would be nice to present them later, in fact I was interested to create D group around here and maybe these Brazilian students may help. Matheus.
Will keep that in mind. BTW there's a fledgling idea to hold a C++/D/systems programming conference in Belo Horizonte.
Hi Andrei and Matheus, Regarding this conference in Brazil, that would be fantastic! +1. I live in Curitiba (which is in the South of Brazil), but I'd totally fly to Belo Horizonte to attend. I've just discovered D recently, and it's a joy to code in D. Please, keep me posted.
Aug 15 2018
prev sibling parent Atila Neves <atila.neves gmail.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 15 August 2018 at 22:12:55 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
 On 8/15/18 5:31 PM, Matheus wrote:
 On Wednesday, 15 August 2018 at 20:45:34 UTC, Andrei 
 Alexandrescu wrote:
 ... We are in talks with a few more students from Romania and 
 Brazil...
I'm from Brazil and I use D for hobby projects. It would be nice to present them later, in fact I was interested to create D group around here and maybe these Brazilian students may help. Matheus.
Will keep that in mind. BTW there's a fledgling idea to hold a C++/D/systems programming conference in Belo Horizonte.
I would most definitely fly back to Brazil to attend and/or speak at that! Belo Horizonte no less, where I have free lodging. :)
Aug 17 2018
prev sibling parent Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Wednesday, 15 August 2018 at 20:45:34 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
 On 8/13/18 5:50 AM, Joakim wrote:
 [...]
Thanks for the info. That's good for Nim and something we could definitely benefit from as well. Currently, Sebastian Wilzbach and Razvan Nitu, both students, are working full time with the Foundation. Mike is our publishing and general PR person, working a reliable part time. We are in talks with a few more students from Romania and Brazil.
Good to know, didn't know Seb and Razvan were full-time.
 Our early experiments with bountysource were sadly 
 unsuccessful. I'm not writing it off but we'd probably need a 
 new angle for a new round of experimentation. Suggestions are 
 welcome.
I've never liked that bountysource website overall, but it does provide a way to fund specific issues.
 Regarding corporate sponsorship, we have been public about 
 being interested, but we haven't exactly beaten off offers with 
 a stick. I have personally asked our top users in several 
 instances for assistance. There has been some, but not to the 
 extent of allocating one or more full-time engineers. Shout out 
 to Laeeth Isharc whose enterprise has been far and away the 
 most generous, and to Weka as well for sharing with us some 
 time and resources at a crucial juncture for the company.
Good to hear those options are being explored.
 We've always been glad to take suggestions from individual 
 collaborators. Mike Parker would be the person to reach out to. 
 What would be best is to get some concrete action; 
 historically, the typical suggestion came in the form "here's 
 this great idea, you go work on it". Even that is fine if the 
 idea is fleshed out and argued convincingly. Better yet, 
 there's no better proof that an idea is good than to actually 
 execute it to demonstrable benefit.
OK, I'll try that then. The first step is to figure out what people want to pay for, so I will open a forum thread for that. Perhaps such feedback can also guide the funding targets on Opencollective, in addition to the survey data already collected.
Aug 16 2018