Other libraries - web site link, and other thoughts

[Rikki Cattermole via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On 27/01/2015 8:29 a.m., Laeeth Isharc wrote:
> At the moment it goes straight go code.dlang.org, which may be a bit
> overwhelming if you have just arrived at dlang.org and want to see what
> it can do.
>
> Is it worth changing to the library wiki write up page on libraries?
> And making sure link to code.dlang.org is prominent, saying
> "code.dlang.org is a registry of D libraries hosted on github.  There
> are currently XYZ libraries, of which ABC are under active development".
>
> At the moment, the list of libraries on the wiki is fairly complete, but
> not oriented towards answering the question of how do I do stuff.  It
> would be nice to have a set of pages on this that mines the gold from
> the forums and makes it easy to find. Eg "how do I navigate html or
> xml?".  Use dom.d or ae, and here are some simple programs.
>
> Compare python community doc situation to ours.  (We are leaner, but
> that doesn't mean we can't do a better job),
>
> Also say that if you cannot find the library you need, you should know
> that it is easy to interface to all C libraries (click for details), and
> that it is possible and fairly easy to interface to many C++ libraries
> (click here).
>
> p0nce and others are doing great work on D idioms, but what is missing
> is pointers to examples of larger programs.  I know it is common sense
> if you are experienced to read the source of other projects to learn,
> but is it worth making this easy by having in the section on learning D
> some pointers to some model D code bases.
>
> The FUD crowd on slashdot always brings up the Tango / Phobos split, but
> this is not prominently addressed on the web site. Should this not be
> answered in the main FAQ?
>
> The compilation speed of dmd (and somewhat ldc) is a major advantage.
> It is stunning in outright terms, and almost inconceivable if you come
> from the world of c++.  It really matters because it allows you to shift
> styles to iterative development.  So it should be featured on the front
> page, and there should be quantitative benchmarks (because that's what
> modern people like) comparing dmd to other language compilers as well as
> pointing out how quickly phobos compiles. A YouTube video may make it
> more concrete.  And there should be quotes from authoritative users of D
> talking about how useful they find quick compilation and iterative
> development.
>
> People are lazy.  Or more charitably, not wealthy in terms of attention
> and time in the modern world.  The documentation is often written from
> the point of view of the compiler and library writer, and this is not
> the point of view of the user, who wants to know what he can do, and how
> he can do it.
>
> In the "interfacing to C tutorial", how about starting off by getting to
> the point.  Have the following section at the beginning, and maybe even
> make it crisper by saying that D can utilise all existing C libraries,
> and all that needs to be done is to translate the header  files to D.
>
> Using Existing C Libraries
> Since D can call C code directly, it can also call any C library
> functions, giving D access to the smorgasbord of existing C libraries.
> To do so, however, one needs to write a D interface (.di) file, which is
> a translation of the C .h header file for the C library into D.
>
> For popular C libraries, the first place to look for the corresponding D
> interface file is the Deimos Project. If it isn't there already, and you
> write one, please contribute it to the Deimos Project.
>
> ---
>
> In the spirit of accommodating peoples' attention poverty, why not say
> at the top that there are translation tools for objective C and C.
> Click here to download dstep binaries (linux / win etc), and here to go
> to the github dstep site.  I confess that I struggled for ages
> unsuccessfully to compile dstep on my platform without realising that
> the binaries were available for download.
>
> Similarly for C++, the web site starts off completely on the wrong
> note." While D is fully capable of interfacing to C, its ability to
> interface to C++ is much more limited. There are three ways to do it:"
>
> I hear "much more limited", and think I am not going to bother with this
> (if I have not yet committed to the language).  Whereas in actual fact,
> as Walter pointed out in his talk, nobody else can interface with C++
> and it is a marvel to be able to do so at all, let alone in a way that
> is much more complete than the docs suggest.  And it sounds like this
> phrasing is in any case outdated.
>
> Change to something like: "Interfacing to C++ is a challenging endeavour
> for any language, but it is a challenge that must be met in order to
> take advantage of the large set of existing libraries and code bases in
> C++.  It is therefore a priority for 2015 to implement an ability to
> link to a set of C++ that will be complete for most use cases.  Walter
> Bright spoke recently at Microsoft on this topic, and the reader may
> find the following forum threads of interest.
>
> As things stand, the following features are complete:..., whilst there
> are limitations with respect to: exceptions, multiple inheritance, ...
>
> The aim is to finish C++ interfacing in the reference compiler DMD, and
> it is likely that this support will be extended to the other D language
> compilers: GDC, and LDC.
>
> Parallel to this effort, there is an alpha project called Calypso that
> takes advantage of the clang API to integrate almost complete C++
> support within the D compiler LDC and takes away the need to generate
> separate headers.  Link here to download binaries (they are not yet
> available, but we should offer standard builds even though it is alpha
> because of the strategic importance of the project, and because
> clang/llvm is not trivial to build - I needed to edit my usr/include
> headers to hack up size_align_t just to get it to compiled) and here for
> github.
>
>
>
>
> Laeeth
Maybe post this on D NG?