Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz wrote:
After toying with D1 some years ago I've returned to see D2 and ported
it a program I had written in D1. 99% of the time was figuring out why
my chars[] suddenly didn't want to work/interface correctly with C
library calls.
After going through some documentation on the web I managed to make it
work, but still have the feeling my brain hasn't really reached the
"aha!" point about all those freaking char/string/whatever aliases. And
the mangling looks seriously ugly.
Also there are many other changes, like ranges mentioned in the
Changelog. What the hell are ranges anyway? After browsing some more I
get to
http://www.digitalmars.com/d/2.0/statement.html#ForeachRangeStatement
and simply think: what does this mean other than the word range is in
there? I still don't get a clue.
My point is, the available documentation is scattered like a
fragmentation grenade, and depending on your luck you get "hit" by it,
or have to spend a lot of time seeking it.
I know that there is this "Learn to tango with D" book, but I'm not
interested in Tango, plus I guess it applies to D1. Is there any other
documentation source explaining D2 without necessary going through D1
documentation first?
I'm thinking of something like Python's "holding hands" tutorial. After
a few hours of reading that you basically know pretty much everything
there is to it, except for the huge library. It would be great if there
was something similar for D2 (so I don't have to go and write it myself!).
The key piece of information which I think you're missing is that D2
just underwent an earthquake change in the last release. D2.029 is alpha
1 of Phobos 2.0. It's a major break from D2.028, and has lots of
ground-breaking stuff. The major concepts are in, but there are many
bugs, and documentation will take some time. It's really not recommended
to use it unless you're interested in working on language/library
development.
I'm sorry that you've chosen such a bad time to return! The situation
should be much better in a couple of months time.
