Last DMD made me truly breathless -- for the wrong reasons

Alexander Panek a.panek at brainsware.org
Wed Nov 15 11:13:20 PST 2006


I've written a script for installing DMD on Linux. This could easily be 
adopted to either an executable file for Windows, or a batch script 
(though I think an executable file is less pain in the ass in this 
case.. :P).

Alex

Gregor Richards wrote:
> Though it creates fanciful bootstrapping issues, it's certainly 
> possible. If I added a 'dmd' package, one could download just DSSS (with 
> no compiler at all), and it would run a script (presumably not written 
> in D :) ) which would download and install DMD.
> 
> In fact, I've already done this for GDC (though it's mostly only useful 
> for upgrading, as its script /is/ written in D)
> 
>  - Gregor Richards
> 
> Jesse Phillips wrote:
>> DSSS would make a good distro for dmd/build. May not be feasible now,
>> but some day.
>>
>> Georg Wrede wrote:
>>
>>> My experiences last night
>>>
>>>
>>> I've been doing production work in D for some six months now. Therefore
>>> I have been a bit reluctant to actually download the latest versions for
>>> testing, we've settled on 0.166 on Linux, and want to stay with it for
>>> some time past D 1.0.
>>>
>>> Yesterday I couldn't resist, so I installed .174 on my w2k laptop -- and
>>> I was in for a major jolt:
>>>
>>> Idly browsing dmd/bin I found that one of the exes actually had an icon.
>>> So I double-clicked it, and guess what, a simple wysiwyg GUI editor pops
>>> up! Wow, now we can make simple GUI apps right out of the box! And I
>>> found a small and nice text editor already configured for D there, too!
>>>
>>> How come I've missed the buzz? Well, I guess D development is really
>>> putting on an exponential speed. Hoy contenders, resistance is futile!
>>>
>>> Some research this morning revealed the day-after: I must have
>>> downloaded DFL in the spring and forgotten to erase the dm and dmd
>>> hierarchies before unzipping. Oh well, it's the small things, like 
>>> always.
>>>
>>>
>>> Some observations
>>>
>>> While I actually believed I was using this "shrink-wrap-DMD", I had
>>> several different feelings about it:
>>>
>>> - wow, D is leaping forward -- where will we be in six months?!!
>>> - unfair to only provide GUI stuff for Windows
>>> - later it felt ok, since most D users are on Windows anyway
>>> - Walter's really out to impress the crap out of folks
>>>
>>> After my bitter fall to ground, I felt:
>>>
>>> - why not?
>>> - some freebies in there make it feel polished, and "bigger"
>>> - ok, it's not Eclipse, but it could be touted as "a largish example"
>>> - OTOH, it must be awkward for Digital Mars:
>>>    - quality issues
>>>    - rights issues
>>>    - the hassle, maintenance, support...
>>>    - uncertainty about continued support from the app authors
>>>    - upgrades syncing, especially waiting for the apps to catch up!
>>>    - fighting with folks about who's stuff to include
>>>
>>>
>>> Things learned
>>>
>>> Obviously Walter can't be burdened with all this. So, what's left?
>>> IMHO, we could re-examine the idea about there being "D distros".
>>>
>>> We could have a few distros, each trying to be more user friendly, more
>>> outa-the-zip usable, and later distros for specific things, like games
>>> development, office stuff development, systems stuff, etc. If Linux
>>> seems to prosper with it, then I see no reason why D couldn't.
>>>
>>> The DMD license could deny charging for such distros. At the same time
>>> the text would recommend contacting DM, "for very reasonable deals" on
>>> for-profit distribution, including book-sleeve CDs.
>>>
>>> This way Walter could concentrate on exactly what he's doing right now,
>>> and what he's better at than anybody else: rocketing D to places where
>>> no language has gone!



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