D Programming Language
"It seems to me that most of the "new" programming languages fall into one of two categories: Those from academia with radical new paradigms and those from large corporations with a focus on RAD and the web. Maybe it's time for a new language born out of practical experience implementing compilers." -- Michael
"Great, just what I need.. another D in programming." -- Segfault
D is a systems programming language. Its focus is on combining the power and high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages like Ruby and Python. Special attention is given to the needs of quality assurance, documentation, management, portability and reliability.
D is statically typed, and compiles direct to native code. It's multiparadigm: supporting imperative, object oriented, and template metaprogramming styles. It's a member of the C syntax family, and its look and feel is very close to C++'s. For a quick feature comparison, see this comparison of D with C, C++, C# and Java.
It is not governed by a corporate agenda or any overarching theory of programming. The needs and contributions of the D programming community form the direction it goes.
There are currently two implementations, the Digital Mars DMD package for Win32 and x86 Linux, and the GCC D Compiler package for several platforms, including Windows and Mac OS X.
A large and growing collection of D source code and projects are at dsource. More links to innumerable D wikis, libraries, tools, media articles, etc. are at dlinks.
This document is available as a pdf, as well as in Japanese and Portugese translations. A Japanese book D Language Perfect Guide is available.
This is an example D program illustrating some of the capabilities:
#!/usr/bin/dmd -run /* sh style script syntax is supported */ /* Hello World in D To compile: dmd hello.d or to optimize: dmd -O -inline -release hello.d */ import std.stdio; void main(char[][] args) { writefln("Hello World, Reloaded"); // auto type inference and built-in foreach foreach (argc, argv; args) { // Object Oriented Programming CmdLin cl = new CmdLin(argc, argv); // Improved typesafe printf writefln(cl.argnum, cl.suffix, " arg: %s", cl.argv); // Automatic or explicit memory management delete cl; } // Nested structs and classes struct specs { // all members automatically initialized int count, allocated; } // Nested functions can refer to outer // variables like args specs argspecs() { specs* s = new specs; // no need for '->' s.count = args.length; // get length of array with .length s.allocated = typeof(args).sizeof; // built-in native type properties foreach (argv; args) s.allocated += argv.length * typeof(argv[0]).sizeof; return *s; } // built-in string and common string operations writefln("argc = %d, " ~ "allocated = %d", argspecs().count, argspecs().allocated); } class CmdLin { private int _argc; private char[] _argv; public: this(int argc, char[] argv) // constructor { _argc = argc; _argv = argv; } int argnum() { return _argc + 1; } char[] argv() { return _argv; } char[] suffix() { char[] suffix = "th"; switch (_argc) { case 0: suffix = "st"; break; case 1: suffix = "nd"; break; case 2: suffix = "rd"; break; default: break; } return suffix; } }
Note: all D users agree that by downloading and using D, or reading the D specs, they will explicitly identify any claims to intellectual property rights with a copyright or patent notice in any posted or emailed feedback sent to Digital Mars.