On Wednesday, 14 January 2015 at 05:10:05 UTC, Joakim wrote:
Take a look at the official package registry, called dub:
I love dub, who doesn't. It is evidence of a very active and
large community.
I don't think it's that unusual for a native compiled language:
can you find C++ snippets to write tweets? I doubt it. A
compiled languages is just not the tool people usually grab to
write such things.
Pardon my naivity, but I don't know why I *wouldn't* want to do
this in D? I want something to pull tweets, analyse them quickly
and produce results. And then I graph it in something else. Isn't
this what this language would be *really* good at, as it provides
efficiency with minimal coding?
D would like to be good at all these things, and some of them
are enabled on dub. But as a newer language with a smaller
community than Java, obviously the amount of APIs covered is
going to be less right now.
I'd love to help it on this journey, with my limited knowledge.
Where can I start?
This is the normal chicken-or-egg problem with a new language
like D, ie people want libraries or API wrappers to get their
job done easier but if they don't spend time writing them, they
never get done.
Agreed. But if I'm looking to use an API library and their isn't
one there, writing a new library entirely isn't exactly a trivial
task.
Also, maybe the D community doesn't put their code up for
public consumption as much as some other language communities.
This is my belief and main point.
I don't doubt that these issues exist, I just consider them
normal for a newer language.
As for recommending D, I think it depends on the type of user.
If they care at all about efficiency, I don't know that I'd
recommend a language other than D. If they don't really care
how fast their code runs and prefer to stay at a higher
scripting level, then the advantages of D fade compared to
other languages.
Yes the language is efficient but what's the point in having
efficient code if I don't know how to get it to do what I want?
While I'm not sure if you agree or disagree with me, I think you
also clarify what I was trying to say.
My point wasn't that there aren't ways to do things in D.
My point was that there are fewer examples of *how* to do things
in D.
This will discourage the new user, which will prevent it becoming
a more popular language.
So if I'm looking for a new language to use, I'd probably stick
to the ones that have more examples.
