Games people play

[Pragma]

Brad Anderson wrote:
> Pragma wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>> We only have to become the _preferred_ language in _one_ area! After
>>> that it'll automatically follow that we gain other areas and a huge
>>> general interest. ("If C is good enough for Unix itself, it has to be
>>> a good language. -- If D is good enouhg for some of the best games
>>> shops, it has to be a good language.")
>> Agreed.  While I had a false start myself moving toward webapps for D, I
>> think we're much closer than we were.  But add to that the current
>> turbulence and quiet revolution we've seen in web design techniques, and
>> things seem farther away than ever.  
> 
> [snip]
> 
> Are you talking about Ajax here?  Frameworks like Rails / Django?  Just trying
> to clarify your point here.  Assuming that Ajax is what you're referring to,
> the need for a kick-ass server side remains, and it's where DSP could shine.
> Kris has said that small mods to Mango could allow it to handle the different
> demands of Ajax calls more effectively, as Jetty's new version does.  Couple
> that with a really easy server-side framework that wraps up a bunch of WS
> complexity and you're on your way.  Oooh, I'm getting OT again... shocking.

As a matter of fact, yes I am. ;)

I've spent the better part of the past few months working on AJAX-based 
software (on the job at that!).  Rants about browser readyness* for deep 
Javascript apps aside, I've noticed that a grammar like DSP (as 
originally concieved) is becomming increasingly irrelevant for 
web-applications; look at Ruby on Rails.  Something that talks AJAX and 
WebSerivces as it's native tounge is really the way forward, and I am 0% 
complete on a D based solution there.  Granted, Mango+DDL is still how 
this will happen, but that's all just the underpinnings.

(* okay, one rant: IE's JS debugging support is deplorable enough to 
satisfy several anti-patterns *and* violate parts the Geneva Convention 
at the same time.)

> 
> I'd like to put this delicately, but I'm not sure how.  In my mind, there's a
> strength of development that exists in game devs that's not there in web devs
> (maybe I'm just talking about myself ;) ).  However, I would guess the web
> devs are out there in larger numbers.  Perhaps this crowd would benefit from
> D's improvements and be the market Georg talks about.

Well put, and you're not just talking about yourself.  Yea, some of us 
walk that line, but for the most part everyone has a focus and that 
tends to fall mostly within one problem domain or another.  There's no 
shame in that.

We can't all be John Carmack, Bjarne Stoustrup, or even Walter.  The 
rest of us have to settle for using their software instead.

-- 
- EricAnderton at yahoo