Hello folks,
I am interested in learning D (just starting out, did a few of
the exercises on the D tour), and had some questions before I
decide to jump right in. My questions are genuinely motivated by
my experiences and expectations, so please forgive me if some
questions don't come across as well as my intentions!
1. I have some experience with both C and C++, and have been
learning Rust for a while, but a few things put me off about the
whole business -
a). The core language appears to be simple enough, but becomes
increasingly complex as I begin writing larger programs.
b). The whole ownership system is easy to understand, but the
APIs become very complicated and unwieldy, and more time appears
to be spent on understanding and ensuring that memory is being
used correctly than on the core program logic.
c). The whole community seems infused with both the Feminism/SJW
(I don't care about those communities, but it feels weird having
a programming community get sidetracked by all that bullshit),
and too much of Ruby-on-Rails culture (probably started with
Steve Klabnik) so that it doesn't feel like any real systems
programmers are focusing on that language, and finally, d). The
whole language feels like a bit of patchwork of random ideas, and
also the whole "safety" and "no segfaults" guarantees seem to
have lesser and lesser RoI as time goes by.
Sorry for the rant, I didn't realise I was quite that frustrated!
That's just to give some background about me and my recent
experiences! :D
In that regard, I suppose I'll get a better feel of the community
here as I interact more, but I have high hopes that it'll be much
more technical than purely social!
2. I am more interested in learning D as a pure systems
programming language so that I can develop my own tools (not
looking to develop an OS, just some grep-scale tools to start off
with). In that regard, I have a few concerns about the GC. My
rudimentary knowledge of the D ecosystem tells me that there is a
GC in D, but that can be turned off. Is this correct? Also, some
threads online mention that if we do turn off GC, some of the
core std libraries may not fully work. Is this presumption also
correct?
In this regard, I am curious to know if I would face any issues
(with my intent in mind), or will I do just fine? If you could
share your experiences and domains of use, that would also be
very helpful for me. Secondly, how stable is the language and how
fast is the pace of development on D?
Again, sorry for my ignorance if I have been wrong-footed on some
(or all) points.
2. I am also curious as to what would be the best path for a
complete beginner to D to learn it effectively? I am a relatively
fast learner (and I learn better by context, as in, some core
unifying idea described and then elucidated through big examples
instead of learning in bits and pieces). How did you folks learn
D? I'm sure hearing your experiences would be helpful too. Are
there any books/video tutorials that you would recommend (aside
from this site itself).
3. Are there some small-scale Open Source projects that you would
recommend to peruse to get a feel for and learn idiomatic D?
4. I have heard good reports of D's metaprogramming capabilities
(ironically enough, primarily from a thread on the Rust user
group), and coming from a Common Lisp (and some Racket)
background, I am deeply interested in this aspect. Are D macros
as powerful as Lisp macros? Are they semantically similar (for
instance, I found Rust's macros are quite similar to Racket's)?
5. Supposing I devote the time and energy and get up to speed on
D, would the core language team be welcoming if I feel like I can
contribute?
That's all off the top of my head at the moment. Perhaps I'll
have more questions as I read the responses. Thanks in advance!
Cheers.
- Hello, folks! Newbie to D, have some... timmyjose via Digitalmars-d-learn
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