How useful is D

[Dave]

Lars E. wrote:
> The language itself seems to be very interesting. Unfortunately, there 
> does not seem to be a single complete and stable GUI toolkit, which is a 
> real show stopper - since I can only imagine using D for small GUI 
> client apps on the desktop right now (where it beats Java and C# easily 
> since it compiles directly to native code and links everything in 
> statically - no giant framework download required).
> 
> On the server side, it is impratical to not use Apache or IIS to host 
> your applications, since most firewalls block anything but port 80, and 
> most servers also host web content.
> 

Well, that's kind of a 'Internetwork-centric' statement <g>

> So if you cannot use it on the server side nor on the client side, what 
> is it useful for?
> 

There are a lot of things that can be done on the server that you don't 
even need a port for :) Also, there is probably room for a few more 
implementations of things like SMTP/POP/NNTP servers and the like for 
which D is very well suited. Not to mention things like database 
engines, etc.

Initially though, I see D as becoming a fast running and fast 
development alternative to Perl and Ruby scripts that you wouldn't 
normally use C for (because of C's lack of the built-in's that D has).

> Does anyone here use it commercially or do you only toy around with it 
> in your spare time?