Website message overhaul

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 11/15/11 11:21 PM, Peter Alexander wrote:
> On 16/11/11 1:19 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> On 11/15/11 11:51 AM, Peter Alexander wrote:
>>> I just feel like that page is desperately trying to sell D, rather than
>>> just humbly introducing it and letting the language speak for itself.
>>
>> I don't think "letting the language speak for itself" works. People who
>> are willing to get to that point are already interested. The challenge
>> is having someone with only a fleeting curiosity get a quick overview of
>> why they should become interested. We want to send a clear and crisp
>> message about D. This is not about being humble vs. arrogant or whatnot.
>
> By "letting the language speak for itself" I mean that we shouldn't
> resort to desperate sales pitches:
>
> "Concurrency seems difficult? Fear no more." <-- cheesy sales pitch
>
> "True immutable data, no sharing by default, and controlled mutable
> sharing across threads." <-- letting the language speak

Like.

> Why do we need three powerful messages? No other language website does
> that and I don't see why we should do it.

Because three is an excellent number for this kind of stuff as has been 
repeatedly shown.

> Short introduction (like the one I already posted) + tiny code sample.
>
> import std.stdio;
> void main()
> {
> // 'line' statically deduced to string type
> foreach (line; File("text.txt").byLine())
> writeln(line);
> }
>
> That tiny code sample demonstrates:
> - C-family syntax
> - Static typing
> - Type deduction
> - Automatic memory management
> - Powerful abstractions
>
> The missing things could easily be stated in any short paragraph.

An always visible example would be indeed good.


Andrei