On Saturday, 30 August 2014 at 19:19:48 UTC, Sativa wrote:
I think it would be helpful to have the d lang site host
tutorials/lessons on various aspects of D. D is hard to use for
certain things like gui's, graphics(ogl, dx, etc), etc... not
necessarily because D can't do these things but because the
information is not out there.
If The D site hosted, sort of like a wiki, but with properly
designed articles about how to do things in D, maybe more
people would start to use it?
For example,
I'd like to get into graphics and gui programming using D. I
could use something like C#.NET which would make life easier
but I don't like the drawbacks of C#.
But trying to find coherent information, say, to draw an image
on screen using opengl and D is nearly impossible... and way
too time consuming, compared to finding similar information
using C/C++ or most other popular languages.
Getting D to work in these scenarios are already complicated
enough. Usually it relies on the work of one person who hasn't
made it clear how to do it well. I know D can do graphics, I've
seen it done... I've even read some tutorials on it... but
nothing is clear, relevant, or updated.
Having a quick way to access stuff in the categories like
Sound(playing sounds, VST design)
Graphics(Gui, 2D/3D using open GL, etc...)
etc...
e.g., suppose I want to create a vst in D... google "D lang
vst", and the only relevant site that comes up is:
http://le-son666.com/software/vstd/
Woo hoo! looks like someone did the work for us!
But seriously? There is just enough information to hang myself.
Do I really want to go down this path and potentially waste
countless hours trying to get something to work that might not?
I feel many others go through the same thought processes.
If there was a wiki like site for D that is based on tutorials
and experiences/results then surely it would help a lot of
people. If people could contribute there problems or solutions
in a unified and connected way, it would be easier to find the
relevant information than it is now.
About 95% of the time when I search for something that I want
to do in D, I get a forum post... and about 15% of the time it
actually leads to something useful. Maybe bout 5% of the time
it actually solves my problem.
There is just so much junk out there and all the gems are lost.
Most of the gems need some polishing to show their true beauty.
Sorry to say, but this is how a community-backed language works.
D does not have a giant corporate sponsor like C#, who can pay
for reams of documentation and tutorials. You're expected to
like D enough to learn the language on your own
(http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html) and then either be able
to pick up OpenGL on your own (http://open.gl/) or know it
already and be able to apply D to the OpenGL API, which as a
C-style API is pretty straightforward to call from D.
Yes, it would be nice if D had a bunch of tutorials for all these
things, but they don't usually exist right now because the
community hasn't written them, for a variety of reasons including
nobody is paying for it. It would be nice if O'Reilly or whoever
started selling such tutorials, but maybe D isn't big enough yet
for them to care. D is still in the early stages of adoption
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations), and
since you're not getting charged lots of money for the privilege,
as you might to buy early cutting-edge hardware like Google Glass
or Oculus Rift, it will cost you time instead.
Sorry to say you'll just have to keep panning around for gems, as
that's where D is at right now. Those of us who stick around
think the time spent is worth it.
