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digitalmars.D.learn - To learn D

reply Binarydepth <binarydepth gmail.com> writes:
I've considering learning full D. I remembered that D is not 
recommended as a first language, So I read time ago.

So my question, is learning C and Python a good intro before 
learning D?

TY
Jul 05 2019
next sibling parent Cym13 <cpicard purrfect.fr> writes:
On Friday, 5 July 2019 at 12:00:15 UTC, Binarydepth wrote:

 I've considering learning full D. I remembered that D is not 
 recommended as a first language, So I read time ago.

 So my question, is learning C and Python a good intro before 
 learning D?

 TY


Both C and Python provide valuable and complementary experience 
no matter what you want to do. If your goal is specifically to 
learn D then I'd learn C up to structures. That way you'll have 
basic tools and vocabulary that you can reuse in D and you can 
learn the rest as you go.

The things that will be hard if you want to learn D directly:

- not as many examples and tutorials on the internet (although 
there are some very good ones)

- lots of concepts and vocabulary (always remember that you 
*don't* have to know every detail of the language, learn what you 
need to solve the problem at hand, one thing at a time)

- not as many libraries, which means that it can be harder to 
solve a problem that not many people have had yet (popular things 
like web applications will be alright)

I think D isn't that bad of a first language. Once you've passed 
the vocabulary barrier you'll get the benefit of having a 
language that'll fit most of your tasks from little scripting or 
web applications to low-level programming and big projects. You 
will be confronted to many concepts and ideas without having to 
learn a new language each time and this knowledge is useful even 
if you decide to use another language later on.
Jul 05 2019
prev sibling parent reply Craig Dillabaugh <craig.dillabaugh gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 5 July 2019 at 12:00:15 UTC, Binarydepth wrote:

 I've considering learning full D. I remembered that D is not 
 recommended as a first language, So I read time ago.

 So my question, is learning C and Python a good intro before 
 learning D?

 TY


Ali's book is targeted at beginners (see link below).  I don't 
see why D wouldn't make a good first language.  If your objective 
is to learn D, then I don't think learning C or Python is going 
to be help that much.  Obviously if you know C/Python you can 
learn D more quickly, but I doubt the effort is worth it if D is 
the ultimate goal.

http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html
Jul 05 2019
parent Samir <samir aol.com> writes:
On Friday, 5 July 2019 at 13:56:18 UTC, Craig Dillabaugh wrote:

 Ali's book is targeted at beginners (see link below).  I don't 
 see why D wouldn't make a good first language.  If your 
 objective is to learn D, then I don't think learning C or 
 Python is going to be help that much.  Obviously if you know 
 C/Python you can learn D more quickly, but I doubt the effort 
 is worth it if D is the ultimate goal.

 http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html


I will second Craig's recommendation to spend some time going 
through Ali's book.  It strikes a good balance between being an 
introduction to programming in general, and to D in particular.  
While I have dabbled in half a dozen languages or so over the 
years, I find D to be a lot more accessible than many of the 
other languages I've tried.  Part of that comes do the language 
design (similarities to C and Python) but mostly to the helpful 
community you will find here.  Good luck!
Jul 05 2019