std.xml should just go

[Lutger Blijdestijn]

Andrej Mitrovic wrote:

> On 2/4/11, spir <denis.spir at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> About that, I would love a tutorial about eponymous templates starting
>> with their /purpose/ (why does this feature even exist? what does it
>> /mean/? what does it compare/oppose to? why is one supposed to need/enjoy
>> it? how is it supposed to help & make code better mirror model?) Same for
>> alias template params. Same for a rather long list of features, probably.
>>
> 
> But both of these are already explained in the manual:
> http://www.digitalmars.com/d/2.0/template.html (search for Implicit
> Template Properties)
> http://www.digitalmars.com/d/2.0/template.html (search for Template
> Alias Parameters)
> 
> Granted, eponymous templates aren't explained in much detail on that page.
> As for explaining how they work together, I did write that short
> template tutorial
> (http://prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?D__Tutorial/D2Templates), but
> you've already seen that. :)
> 
> However, I do not think we should write tutorials on single features
> alone. I've read a bunch of books that explain the language in
> feature-by-feature basis, but neglect to tie everything together. For
> example, "Learning Python" is this 1200 page book about Python 3,
> explaining the language feature by feature but never really discussing
> the language as a whole. It's only good as a reference, which
> ironically defeats the book's title. OTOH "Dive into Python 3"
> gradually introduces you to more features of the language, but always
> has code examples where you can see multiple features of the language
> being used. (IIRC there were string processing examples which used
> regex, multiple modules, and unittests all at once).
> 
> Having a perspective on how all features tie together is crucial to
> understanding the purpose of individual features themselves. In my
> opinion!

I agree, most of the 'dive into' books are excellent and complementary to 
reference materials. TDPL also has great little examples that illustrate the 
why of things, without ever becoming a mindless tutorial. It's hard to write 
such things however (witness the abundant amount of horrible technical 
writing), I truly admire those who can.