On Wednesday, 19 October 2016 at 09:32:29 UTC, Chris wrote:
At the beginning, D was not meant to be a "first language", but
this has changed over time. In fact, almost all new modern
languages that emerge now have features that D has, like
templates, !boo ;), so beginners will have to learn them
regardless of what new language they pick. Thus, D is no longer
"worse" or "more complicated".
How do you win a visitor's interest in 2-5 seconds?
Put a scantily dressed lady on your page ;)
Yep ... instant 1000+ visitors, just the wrong kind.
Now, if it was a programming challenge and and you can code to
undress. Now that will draw in the right kind. *haha*
Seriously, there will always be those who will prefer shiny
buttons and fancy talk to facts or usability.
Its that what is actually the issue. The fact that some think
people want fancy buttons.
And no offense but basic D is just the same as basic PHP. They
are all C languages. If somebody can start in PHP, they can start
in D. The big difference is that there is much more materials
available for PHP, so people more easily start.
It also helps that you do not need to do a lot of setting things
up for PHP ( web hosts ready ). Where as with D, you need to
download the compiler, have a root server etc ( if your looking
at web programming ).
If you give a novice a D basic hello world or a PHP basic hello
world, they can get going with both at the same level. Same with
some high level ( basic logic if/else, loops, etc ). That is all
the same or so simulare.
But when you trow people into the deep end with pipeline
one-liners, templates, mapping etc... sorry but that is way above
a lot of people there first experience with a language.
You have 3 class of people:
* Total newbies: People who want to see something simple. If i do
x, then i get y. Ooooo, shiny. *lol*
* People with some experience in other languages: They look for
similarities, they try to match there logic to the new language.
This is actually a big group of potential recruits. A lot of
those are actually self-taught programmers.
* People with large experience: They are advanced programmers.
Linking advanced features from one language to another is no
issue. They can quickly tell from the summary what the real
advantages of a language are. All the programming lingo is no
issue for them.
The current homepage example is in my option, right between group
2 and 3. And its disregarding group one and two.
