On Tuesday, 18 October 2016 at 10:04:35 UTC, Benjiro wrote:


The issue is, that in order to understand the example, you are already required to have a knowledge of the language.

I can only use myself as a example. Only started to really use D a few days ago because i have a specific project. I instantly look for the methods that interest me, totally bypassing half the manual. The ! looked like a operator and not a template.

To show you how much a nice example flow matters: a month or 3 ago ( because of this future project ) i started to look at several languages: Go, Nim, Haxe, etc...

[snip]

The example on the start page even says what it's doing and anyone familiar with Javascript, Ruby (and now even Java), among other languages, will more or less understand it:

`void main()
{
    // Replace anything that looks like a real
    // number with the rounded equivalent.
    stdin
        .byLine
        .map!(l => l.replaceAll!(c => c.hit.round)
                                (reFloatingPoint))
        .each!writeln;
}
`
People are increasingly looking for this type of thing. I for my part would be delighted to find one liners like that. Javascript also has `map` and `filter`, which was a good addition to the language.

If you want basic code and step by step examples, go to "Learn", which is what I do when I look at other languages. "Getting started", "Learn", "Tutorial", whatever.

Although the first impression counts, I don't wholly subscribe to the "2 seconds" attention span thing. If you're seriously interested in finding a good tool (i.e. a programming language) for your purposes, then you have to invest more than a few minutes anyway, regardless. As to Nim and Haxe, you have to spend some time on the respective pages to get to useful stuff (like language features etc.) - as on any other homepage, so I don't see your point there.

Also, as I've already said, people might look for stuff like `stdin.byLine...` and if they don't find it may think "Just another C-clone, boring". I bet you a pint that people would post here complaining that we didn't show them stuff like `map!(a => ).filter...` on the start page.

tl;dr: You have to invest time in learning how to use a new tool anyway. The example on the start page should not be the main argument for or against a language.

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