Re: New blog about D
On Tuesday, 29 September 2015 at 10:23:25 UTC, Chris wrote: On Tuesday, 29 September 2015 at 04:19:58 UTC, Mike Parker wrote: On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 14:26:35 UTC, Chris wrote: I really don't like blog posts that have overly broad titles when the subject matter is technical. I think the title should be as specific as possible so that I know if it's something I care about. If I see a general title about game development that refers to something that only touches a specific aspect of it, one that I'm not interested in, I'll just feel like I've wasted my time. Moreover, when I am doing a search for something specific, the blog title is often all I pay attention to as I can the search results. A more specific title helps out a lot. It depends on what the blogger in question wants. If s/he wants to draw attention to D in general and give examples of how D is useful to solve certain problems (e.g. with templates, mixins etc), then the title should be more general. The next article might be about processing big data in D - then it should have "big data" in the title/tag/keywords and not just something that refers to one specific aspect of big data handling. The point is that if people see D being associated with various aspects of programming (games, big data), it gets them interested in D in general. If, however, the blogger only wants to talk about D to people who already use D, then s/he might as well be more specific. I just published a follow up post, demonstrating how easy it is to get swizzle assignment. I also implemented feeds, which can be found here: Atom: http://www.mmartins.me/feed.xml?atom RSS: http://www.mmartins.me/feed.xml?rss Posts are now also properly tagged with meta keywords. Chris, I kept the title similar to suggest a follow up. I still think you were right regarding the title policy, and next posts will have a title more appealing to a broader audience. Thanks for the feedback guys!
Re: New blog about D
On Tuesday, 29 September 2015 at 04:19:58 UTC, Mike Parker wrote: On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 14:26:35 UTC, Chris wrote: I really don't like blog posts that have overly broad titles when the subject matter is technical. I think the title should be as specific as possible so that I know if it's something I care about. If I see a general title about game development that refers to something that only touches a specific aspect of it, one that I'm not interested in, I'll just feel like I've wasted my time. Moreover, when I am doing a search for something specific, the blog title is often all I pay attention to as I can the search results. A more specific title helps out a lot. It depends on what the blogger in question wants. If s/he wants to draw attention to D in general and give examples of how D is useful to solve certain problems (e.g. with templates, mixins etc), then the title should be more general. The next article might be about processing big data in D - then it should have "big data" in the title/tag/keywords and not just something that refers to one specific aspect of big data handling. The point is that if people see D being associated with various aspects of programming (games, big data), it gets them interested in D in general. If, however, the blogger only wants to talk about D to people who already use D, then s/he might as well be more specific.
Re: New blog about D
On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 14:26:35 UTC, Chris wrote: It's best to keep it as general as possible (within reason). There is the temptation to think like an engineer and be very specific, but this will only attract a small audience, i.e. those that look for "vector swizzling". IMO, it makes more sense to have the article come up, when somebody types "game development vectors" or "game development dlang". And don't forget that a good title catches the reader's attention when s/he just skims through a homepage / search results, regardless of whether or not s/he's looking for "vector swizzling". I really don't like blog posts that have overly broad titles when the subject matter is technical. I think the title should be as specific as possible so that I know if it's something I care about. If I see a general title about game development that refers to something that only touches a specific aspect of it, one that I'm not interested in, I'll just feel like I've wasted my time. Moreover, when I am doing a search for something specific, the blog title is often all I pay attention to as I can the search results. A more specific title helps out a lot.
Re: New blog about D
On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 13:12:35 UTC, Chris wrote: On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 12:14:56 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 11:53:28 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev wrote: On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... You can reach it http://www.mmartins.me Hi, If you can create an RSS or ATOM feed for D posts, I can add your blog to Planet D: http://planet.dsource.org/ I haven't had time to implement feeds, yet. Will probably do it over of this week. You're welcome :-) Is there a way you can incorporate keywords for search engines and some meta tags like ? I built the platform with support for a bunch of meta content, including keywords for the blog, and also per post, but I think I didn't set them up in the content, yet. Will look into that when I look into improving SEO. I will make sure I can also change the title and 301 redirect the current link to the new one :) I have limited time to work on this, so I have to balance between improving the blog and writing new posts :)
Re: New blog about D
On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 13:20:54 UTC, Mike Parker wrote: On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 10:02:20 UTC, Chris wrote: Hi, I've just read the post. It's nice, it doesn't waste the reader's time and comes straight to the point (apart from highlighting D's strength). I agree, however, that the title could have been better in terms of attracting readers. Since you mention game programming, maybe it would be good to mention it somehow in the title, something to this effect: "A common problem in game programming and how D solved it" or something like that. In this way someone who's interested in game programming may read it or at least take note of the fact that D is mentioned in the context of game programming (and offers solutions). You would want to think less like an engineer when writing and more like an editor / PR guy who wants to get readers interested. Good headlines are the most difficult part. I think it's a perfect title. "vector swizzling" is a common term for anyone working with the graphics side of games and is also applicable outside of games development for any graphics programming. Good keyword title. "Vector swizzling" should definitely be mentioned in the keywords or a in a sub heading. But IMO "game development" should be in the headline, or "graphics programming", although I think "game development" would attract a wider audience than "graphics programming". It's best to keep it as general as possible (within reason). There is the temptation to think like an engineer and be very specific, but this will only attract a small audience, i.e. those that look for "vector swizzling". IMO, it makes more sense to have the article come up, when somebody types "game development vectors" or "game development dlang". And don't forget that a good title catches the reader's attention when s/he just skims through a homepage / search results, regardless of whether or not s/he's looking for "vector swizzling".
Re: New blog about D
On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: The blog platform itself is home-made and the server-side is 100% D (vibe.d). Once I build it up a bit more, I will probably put it up on github as an example of how easy it is to build high-performance frontend and backend web apps with D + vibe.d. It is really productive once the scaffolding and pipeline is all built. Is there an rss feed to the blog? That way I can follow it :)
Re: New blog about D
On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 09:49:03 UTC, John Colvin wrote: On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... [...] this is what http://code.dlang.org/packages/gl3n does, right? Same result, but different implementation. My approach is generic in the dimensions and coordinate names. I did not implement it but you could also specify coordinate name aliases, so a vector could get xyzw or rgba, qrst, or what-have you. The static if approach is not as generic, but probably will compile faster, as it doesn't require string mixins.
Re: New blog about D
On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... You can reach it http://www.mmartins.me Hi, If you can create an RSS or ATOM feed for D posts, I can add your blog to Planet D: http://planet.dsource.org/
Re: New blog about D
On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 11:53:28 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev wrote: On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... You can reach it http://www.mmartins.me Hi, If you can create an RSS or ATOM feed for D posts, I can add your blog to Planet D: http://planet.dsource.org/ I haven't had time to implement feeds, yet. Will probably do it over of this week.
Re: New blog about D
On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... [...] this is what http://code.dlang.org/packages/gl3n does, right?
Re: New blog about D
On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... You can reach it http://www.mmartins.me I want to get better at writing, as I have barely ever written anything other than code, and my name... I noticed there aren't many people actively blogging about D, so I will give it a go, and in the process, try to grow the community a tiny bit by showcasing D's strengths as I remember discovering them myself over the course of last year writing exclusively D. The first post is about vector swizzling. Game programmers get spoiled by writing shaders where swizzling is extremely convenient, and then when they go back to writing C++ they have wet dreams about swizzing in there too. It's not a dream in D. This was the first use-case I thought of when I first learned about D's templates and mixins, but never got to implement it until now. The blog platform itself is home-made and the server-side is 100% D (vibe.d). Once I build it up a bit more, I will probably put it up on github as an example of how easy it is to build high-performance frontend and backend web apps with D + vibe.d. It is really productive once the scaffolding and pipeline is all built. If you have a read, please let me know where I could improve, both my writing and the D code! Cheers! -M Hi, I've just read the post. It's nice, it doesn't waste the reader's time and comes straight to the point (apart from highlighting D's strength). I agree, however, that the title could have been better in terms of attracting readers. Since you mention game programming, maybe it would be good to mention it somehow in the title, something to this effect: "A common problem in game programming and how D solved it" or something like that. In this way someone who's interested in game programming may read it or at least take note of the fact that D is mentioned in the context of game programming (and offers solutions). You would want to think less like an engineer when writing and more like an editor / PR guy who wants to get readers interested. Good headlines are the most difficult part.
Re: New blog about D
On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 10:02:20 UTC, Chris wrote: "A common problem in game programming and how D solved it" That indeed sounds more appealing for a general audience. Thanks Chris!
Re: New blog about D
On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 12:14:56 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: On Monday, 28 September 2015 at 11:53:28 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev wrote: On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... You can reach it http://www.mmartins.me Hi, If you can create an RSS or ATOM feed for D posts, I can add your blog to Planet D: http://planet.dsource.org/ I haven't had time to implement feeds, yet. Will probably do it over of this week. You're welcome :-) Is there a way you can incorporate keywords for search engines and some meta tags like ?
New blog about D
Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... You can reach it http://www.mmartins.me I want to get better at writing, as I have barely ever written anything other than code, and my name... I noticed there aren't many people actively blogging about D, so I will give it a go, and in the process, try to grow the community a tiny bit by showcasing D's strengths as I remember discovering them myself over the course of last year writing exclusively D. The first post is about vector swizzling. Game programmers get spoiled by writing shaders where swizzling is extremely convenient, and then when they go back to writing C++ they have wet dreams about swizzing in there too. It's not a dream in D. This was the first use-case I thought of when I first learned about D's templates and mixins, but never got to implement it until now. The blog platform itself is home-made and the server-side is 100% D (vibe.d). Once I build it up a bit more, I will probably put it up on github as an example of how easy it is to build high-performance frontend and backend web apps with D + vibe.d. It is really productive once the scaffolding and pipeline is all built. If you have a read, please let me know where I could improve, both my writing and the D code! Cheers! -M
Re: New blog about D
On 9/27/2015 4:23 PM, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3mnhp4/vector_swizzle_in_d/ You might want to do an "I am the author, AMA!" post there.
Re: New blog about D
I didn't even notice the blog name at first; I don't think it makes that much of a difference, and it wouldn't put me off reading articles from the blog. Usually blog posts are linked to directly from sites like Hackernews and Reddit anyway. As for the post itself, I enjoyed it. Vector swizzling is probably THE first thing someone thinks of when first introduced to opDispatch.
Re: New blog about D
On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... You can reach it http://www.mmartins.me I want to get better at writing, as I have barely ever written anything other than code, and my name... I noticed there aren't many people actively blogging about D, so I will give it a go, and in the process, try to grow the community a tiny bit by showcasing D's strengths as I remember discovering them myself over the course of last year writing exclusively D. The first post is about vector swizzling. Game programmers get spoiled by writing shaders where swizzling is extremely convenient, and then when they go back to writing C++ they have wet dreams about swizzing in there too. It's not a dream in D. This was the first use-case I thought of when I first learned about D's templates and mixins, but never got to implement it until now. The blog platform itself is home-made and the server-side is 100% D (vibe.d). Once I build it up a bit more, I will probably put it up on github as an example of how easy it is to build high-performance frontend and backend web apps with D + vibe.d. It is really productive once the scaffolding and pipeline is all built. If you have a read, please let me know where I could improve, both my writing and the D code! Cheers! -M Great post! Really like it. If you're genuinely soliciting constructive feedback my one suggestion would be to maybe change the blog name to something a bit less quirky. To be honest I was 50/50 whether I'd read the post when I saw the title. Glad I read the post in the end, but I suspect many may be put off by it Cheers, A.
Re: New blog about D
On Sunday, 27 September 2015 at 23:23:05 UTC, Márcio Martins wrote: Today I launched a very tiny and humble blog, with the first post being about D. It's likely all posts will be about D in the end... [...] I like your blog. I'm a newbie to D (or to Programming you can say) and need resources for learning D. I like people who take time out of their busy schedule for writing to help others. Thanks again. -ps2931
