how to install?

[Chris Miller]

jcc7 Wrote:

> == Quote from glen worstell (glen at worstell.com)'s article
> > Thanks, Bill, for your post re installing d.
> >
> > Of course I am "on Windows", as mentioned in my post. However, your
> > advice about spaces in the path is extremely important, if true,
> > because lots of programs normally go in "C:\Program Files\..."
> >
> > I'll want to verify that before I post my short and complete
> > instructions for newbies on installing d. This assumes that I will
> > be able to finish the "complete" part - Ary's post didn't cover what
> > to do about source files in directories other than the one where the
> > sample hello.d file is located. I also think a few words
> > for newbies about the different "standard" libraries might be in
> > order, but I don't yet know enough to comment on that.
> 
> I know there's a rumor out there that there is more than one "standard" library. I
> think this is false since Phobos has always been the standard library.

I'd love to start saying things, but it's not my language, and not my place to tell Walter how to do things.

> On the other hand, there are alternate runtime libraries (Tango being the most
> popular alternate runtime library).
> 
> I haven't read the Tango book, so I wouldn't know much about it. Does it require
> you to install Tango to learn D? I don't know if that's the best way to learn D.

If you want to "Learn to Tango with D" I can imagine it would be very beneficial to install Tango.

> Perhaps there's some documentation at the Tango website that will help you get
> installed and set up. That'd be great news. Also, you might be able to get some
> more information about Tango in their forums and through IRC:
> http://www.dsource.org/projects/tango/wiki/Contact
> 
> But using Tango may not be the best way for a newbie to start out with D. It might
> be easier to start out learning D by learning Phobos. YYMV.

I think you need to make a big distinction.  D is a programming language.  Phobos and Tango are libraries.

Standard system libraries like Phobos and Tango are almost part of the language, but they're not.  I learned most everything I know about D by reading the DMD 1.0 specification document(1).

For instance, if you know Java, it's technically possible to run javac without the JDK.  You won't have access to base functionality like an interface to use the base object class, but you can create real bytecode which does real things in a real Java Runtime Environment.

Likewise, you can compile D without Phobos or Tango.  You won't have the object.d interface to the object structure, and you won't be able to do hardly anything, but you can compile real code into real executables which do real things on real processors.

As a system library I think Tango is better.  Others prefer Phobos.  Someone should combine the two and make a new library called Demos (after Mars' other moon).  I don't have the time, so I won't complain.  But you should make the distinction between D and the library.  They're very different things.  That's of course assuming that there isn't some hidden magic functionality which needs otherwise.  But my Java example still holds (how else could they build JRuby?)

(1) http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?LanguageSpecification