Spreading the word about D

[Yigal Chripun]

Chris R. Miller wrote:
> Clay Smith wrote:
>> Couldn't find a specific thread devoted to this topic, so started.
>>
>> What do you think is the best way to promote D?
>>
>> Here are some ideas I already know about and have seen used successfully.
>>
>> 1. Articles - Write D articles and post on digg/reddit
>> 2. Tutorials - Teach D newcomers how to use D
>> 3. Libraries - Write a library for D / help out an existing D library
>>
>> Here is a link that is also relevant to the subject:
>> http://www.digitalmars.com/d/howto-promote.html
>>
>> I'm wondering, what are all the awesome, zany, weird, or unique ways
>> you can think of to promote the D language? Did I cover everything?
>> Are there more effective ways of promoting the language?
> 
> I think that more important than libraries are applications written in
> D.  Start writing an application, run into a need for a library, write
> the library and the application.  More applications will provide more
> sample code for newbies to read through, as well as much more publicity.
> If there was a short blurb on the "about" page of every application
> which said "Written in the Digital Mars D Programming Language" then - I
> think - D would gain a lot more publicity.  You know, "let your light so
> shine" and what-not.
> 
> If we can show just how powerful D is, then more people are bound to use
> it.  No one would use Java, Python, C, C++, Ruby, or anything else if it
> weren't that they've already seen the cool things those languages can do.
> 
> I think that Java is a huge example of this.  Java itself is relatively
> unremarkable, plain, almost boring language (trust me, I spent four
> years with it!).  But people took the solid tools it provides and wrote
> some wicked cool stuff in it.  For example, Java's video game
> development following was largely due to Runescape, which proved that
> games were possible in Java - way back in version 1.4!
> 
> I don't think we need to build really big applications for D, but little
> things that will help the ecosystem of applications snowball into a
> larger community will greatly help.
> 
> Those who're maintaining libraries, great job, don't stop!  We need a
> solid foundation to build on!  But I think that a lot of people take one
> look at D, see a mess of libraries on DSource (a lot of which are
> abandoned or don't even build correctly) and sign it off as a language
> with powerful features but a weak support system.  If we can demonstrate
> that D is more than just that, we'll have provided proof that D is not a
> cool gizmo, but a real, powerful tool.
> 
> At least, that's just my $0.02.
> 

D doesn't even have an agreed upon standard library, and you want the
libs on dsource to not look like a mess?!

there is no point building the roof when the foundation isn't ready yet.
 First thing's first: D needs a standard lib. not phobos/tango/tangobos/
downs' libs/bearophile's libs/etc... but a /STANDARD/ lib. One agreed
upon IO API, One agreed upon concurrency API., etc...

people nowadays are accustomed to the the Java standard libs/the .net
framework and anything less than that is perceived as unprofessional.
A programmer friend of mine switched from Ruby to Python even though he
thinks (like me) that the Ruby language has a the superior syntax and is
better designed (passing the this pointer manually, wtf?)
The main reason is of course the Python libs. you get a lot more libs in
the standard python dist and beyond that many more 3rd party libs.

with D, you need to look for 3rd party libs for things that really
should be in the std lib. good example is threading, either you go with
tango which is 3rd party even if you consider it as the de-facto std
lib, or with a different solution like downs' tools for phobos.

I know this subject was discussed many times before and that I haven't
added anything new here but unfortunately there is no progress on the
horizon. Also, having one common runtime upon which there would be two
APIs (phobos and tango) is not a solution. The language needs to provide
one standard API for common constructs like IO and such.

--Yigal