Well, it's been a total failure

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Saturday 11 September 2010 15:52:49 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.
>    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.
>    c. So, I give up on dmd.

I've never understood this. It's not like you're going to look through the code 
and find the malware yourself. So, whether there's malware or not, it's not like 
you're going to find it. You have to rely on the compiler developers to do that. 
And when it comes down to it, have to trust your compiler developers or it makes 
no sense to use their compiler. Most compilers are written by large, well-known 
companies, and it would make no sense for them to put malware in their code 
anyway. In the case of dmd, it's done by Digital Mars, which is definitely a 
solid compiler vender, though fortunately, you can get dmd totally for free. 
Walter Bright is well-known in the compiler community. It's not like he's going 
to be putting malware in dmd. He has enough trouble getting his job done as it 
is. And as has been pointed out by others, the source for dmd is completely 
available. It's just that the backend does not have a license which makes it 
free to be alter or re-used by others.

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

It really isn't all that hard. I mean, it _told_ you what you needed to install 
- the 32-bit version of gcc. Granted, it would be nice if dmd's page listed 
exactly what you needed to install to get dmd to run, but the packages 
themselves differ from distro to distro. And since you have an RPM, it should be 
incredibly straightforward to install the dependencies with your package 
manager. You don't even need to try and figure out which packages have the files 
that you're looking for (which isn't particularly hard with a good package 
manager). It's _telling you_.

A 64-bit version of dmd is forthcoming, and then your multilib issues will go 
away, but if you can't even install an RPM when it tells what it's missing 
dependencies are, then you're going to have trouble with a lot of packages in 
Linux.

And honestly, if this is all it takes to stop you from using D, then you 
obviously aren't all that motivated. Yes, it would be nice if it were easier to 
install dmd, but that's pretty much life with Linux rather than an issue with 
dmd.

Regardless, there are plenty of folks here who would be happy to help you - many 
of which use dmd with 64-bit fedora. So, your first post saying that you quit 
rather than asking for help isn't going to help you much or motivate people to 
help you.

- Jonathan M Davis