On Thursday, 13 October 2016 at 19:06:26 UTC, Karabuta wrote:
How is a new visitor supposed to know "!" is for templates and
not some complicated syntax?
As a dlang newbie ( only started to learn a few days ago ), the
example on the front page is just complex for new users.
Its not a lack of knowledge ( 15+ years php, some C in high
school, Perl 3 years and some other languages over the years )
but i had no clue that "!" ( used a lot in examples ) is actually
templates ( or macro's ). I was focused on other parts ( shared
libraries creation & loading etc ) so never got around to some of
the "basics". Just assumed it was a operator.
Also, first example using regex? And the overuse of one-liners.
Lets not start with so much one liners / merged lines, it makes
something simple look more complex. Its great for more seasoned
programmers but its less readable for people with little or first
time experience.
Another issue is the "Edit/Args/Input/Run". First thing a person
does is press "Run" but then your wondering, wait? What is that
result? Where does it come from? Lost 20 seconds figuring out
where it was hiding.
My suggestions:
A. Remove Args, Remove Input ( reworked / make any input inline
in the code ). Simple is better.
B. Use multiple examples. Place buttons below instead of
Args/Input [1 2 3 .. 8 Run].
Examples:
1. Hello World
2. ...
3. Templates
4. This Regex example ( reworked for inline input )
5. C/C++ Integration example
6. ...
... Show parts of the language its advantages. Its like drugs.
Give people a taste and get them hooked for life. >:)
Just my 2 cents on the topic.