Well, it's been a total failure

[Robert Clipsham]

On 11/09/10 23:52, Vladimir G. Ivanovic wrote:
>   I'm running Fedora 13.x86_64 and I've tried various ways of getting a
> D compiler to work. None have succeeded.
>
> 1. a. I can't install dmd 2.048:
>
>          # rpm -Uvh /downloads/dmd-2.048-0.i386.rpm
>          error: Failed dependencies:
>             gcc(x86-32)>= 4.2.3 is needed by dmd-2.048-0.i386
>     I don't know what package will satisfy this dependency.

I've never used fedora, so I'll skip anything further about rpms.

>     b. dmd is a closed compiler. Not good. I'm really not comfortable
> running a compiler for which I don't have access to the source. The
> risk of undetected malware is too great.

Only the backend is closed, and the source is still available. The front 
end is dual licensed under the GPL and artistic licenses:

http://www.dsource.org/projects/dmd/browser/trunk/src

>     c. So, I give up on dmd.
>
> 2. I can't run ldc because
>     a. The ldc RPM requires Tango, even though this is not an RPM
> dependency for ldc, i.e. you can install ldc without any errors.

Again, I know nothing of RPMs/Fedora, but I can say ldc doesn't require 
tango - it's just a lot nicer to use if you have a standard library :)

>     b. The installation instructions for Fedora on the LDC web site are
> incorrect. "yum install ldc" works, but "yum install tango" doesn't.
> "yum install tango-devel" is the correct command. (This is the first
> time I've heard of<pkg>-devel without a corresponding<pkg>.)
>     c. After I've gotten everything installed, it still doesn't work. I get
>          $ ldc hello.d
>          hello.d(5): Error: module stdio cannot read file 'std/stdio.d'

std is part of phobos, and phobos does not support ldc. A hello world 
using tango would look like this:
---
import tango.io.Stdout;

void main() {
	Stdout("Hello World!").newline;
}
----
>     d. OK, so I link /usr/include/d/tango/stdc to
> /usr/include/d/tango/std, but it still doesn't work. I get:
>          $ ldc hello.d
>          hello.d(8): Error: undefined identifier writefln
>          hello.d(8): Error: function expected before (), not writefln
> of type int

Again, phobos doesn't support ldc.

>     e. ldc only supports D v1.

Correct.

>     f. All of this is too much for me. I give up on ldc.
>
> 3. I can't get gdc to compile.
>     a. First I have to get gcc-4.4.4 to compile, but that requires a 4
> year old version of automake. I have to downgrade.
>     b. After that's fixed, I'm still running into errors that prevent a
> build. The errors change from changeset to changeset. So, I'm giving
> up on gdc.

I've only used gdc once, and it was a long time ago - I can't help here. 
Even then I do know that dmd is the only D compiler that supports D2 
currently. Gdc is getting there.

> Getting a D compiler to run on x86_64 Linux is too hard. I'm giving up
> on D.

Been there, done that :/

> I'm posting this message not as a plea for help, but to illustrate how
> hard it is to get D to run on Fedora.x86_64. The success of D depends
> on high quality, open source compilers being available (my belief),
> and so far, D doesn't seem to be mature enough to be considered, at
> least on Fedora.x86_64.

This will change most likely when dmd gets 64 bit support - this is 
progressing rapidly.
-- 
Robert
http://octarineparrot.com/