Today the Hobbyist, Tommorow, The World!

[Kyle Furlong]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Kyle Furlong wrote:
>> I'm becoming more and more convinced that D needs a polished presence. 
>> How did Java succeed? Marketing. Plain and simple, the first revisions 
>> sucked, but got evangelized extremely effectively. How much better, 
>> since we have a quality compiler, to market it.
> 
> Java also had a billion dollars behind it and pushing. And as they say 
> in the Air Force, with enough power even a brick outhouse will fly <g>.
> 
>> I think I understand the attitude of Walter and some others. That is, 
>> that the merits of the language are self evident to the people who it 
>> is written for, e.g. those who seek will find. So from this point of 
>> view, marketing is unnecessary, word of mouth about the merits of the 
>> language will do this work for us.
> 
> That isn't my attitude at all. I spend probably half of each day 
> evangelizing the language. This involves:
> 
> 1) identifying influential people in the programming community who could 
> be interested in D, and letting them know about it
> 
> 2) talking with webmasters of relevant programming sites to try to get D 
> mentioned on their sites
> 
> 3) preparing presentations, giving them
> 
> 4) watching for relevant discussions coming up outside of our local 
> newsgroups
> 
> 5) in general, trying to ensure that D has a strong presence on the 
> internet
> 
> I think this has been reasonably successful. A year ago, it was normal 
> for people to have never heard of D. Now, it is normal for people to 
> have heard of D, but not know much about it. The next step is to help 
> them know more about it.
> 
> I know some of you are out there doing the same thing, and that is very 
> helpful. More would be better, of course!
> 
> 
>> While I appreciate this feeling, this mode of operation will only gain 
>> us a certain base of users, i.e. hobbyists and one man operations who 
>> can afford to invest in a new language on just its merits. Everyone 
>> else (read, the majority of the IT world) cannot form decisions only 
>> on the merits of a compiler. Organizations need reassurances of a 
>> polished presence. This means documentation, support, packaging, and 
>> marketing.
> 
> I agree, there's plenty of room for improvement there.
> 
>> To this end, I propose the formation of an organization/committee, 
>> headed by Walter, to guide the process of creating this polished 
>> presence.
>>
>> Some things which this committee should consider are:
>>
>> 1. Unified std library which is 100% covered and stable.
>>
>> Aside: I am strongly biased to creating this library out of Ares + 
>> Mango. No offense Walter, but Sean and Kris' code is higher quality at 
>> this point.
> 
> That's fine with me.
> 
>> 2. Formation of a GUI /team/ to pick and/or develop further a cross 
>> platform solution.
>>
>> Aside: It must be a team. DWT is stagnant because Shawn doesnt have 
>> time, and no one else understands the code well enough to continue.
>>
>> 3. Choice of a new mascot/revamp of D-man. Also consider a new name.
>>
>> Aside: I love the name D. But, the benefits of a name bigger than 2 
>> letters are self evident, it should be considered.
> 
> I initially tried another name ("Mars"). Everyone called it D anyway. 
> "D" fits exactly what it is, the next step after C++. Besides, there is 
> far too much momentum already behind calling it D to think of changing. 
> I know that googling "D" is hopeless, which is why I strongly encourage 
> using the phrase "D programming language" as much as possible on D 
> related postings and web pages.
> 
> 
>> Also, D-man has served us well. My initial reaction however, when I 
>> was first introduced to him, was, "Wow, what a trashy mascot, how 
>> uncreative." Now that I'm used to him, hes alright, but I seriously 
>> think we need to reconsider.
> 
> I'm not exactly a professional artist <g>.
> 
>> 4. A new/revampped web presence. The combination of 
>> www.digitalmars.com/d/ and www.dsource.org has worked well for us from 
>> the standpoint of functionality. However, I think to further the goals 
>> of a polished presence, we need a presence more along the lines of 
>> www.php.net.
> 
> I like the look of php.net.
> 
> 
>> Aside: I understand that Walter would like as much traffic to drive 
>> his click ads, but we could work something out, if it is a big issue. 
>> Also, this site could also be owned by DigitalMars as well.
>>
>> I'm interested to hear dissenting opinions as well as Walter's plans 
>> for DigitalMars' involvement in the pursuit of D's success in the 
>> wider world of computing.
> 
> Plans for improvement should plan on it being implementable on an 
> incremental basis.

Well, I definitely don't expect or even want overnight changes. I agree 
that the plan should be ramped up with careful thought.

As to your evangelizing efforts, I'm sorry that I underestimated your 
investment. Please continue the good work, as I do see the progress that 
D has been making in getting mindshare.

-- 
Kyle Furlong // Physics Undergrad, UCSB

"D is going wherever the D community wants it to go." - Walter Bright