Website message overhaul, pass 2

[Dmitry Olshansky]

On 20.11.2011 18:17, Peter Alexander wrote:
> On 20/11/11 1:09 PM, Robert Clipsham wrote:
>> - The code sample at the top is terrible, the equivalent C is only a
>> couple of lines longer and it doesn't show off any of what makes D
>> better! Admittedly you're limited in what you can do here as the code
>> needs to be fairly understandable by non-D programmers, but what's there
>> is... Not good at all.
>
> It's hard to come up with something that is short, easily-understandable
> and demonstrates D's (numerous) powerful features.
>
> How about this one:
>
> // Match email addresses on each line of standard input
> // using a compile-time generated regular expression engine.
> import std.stdio, std.regex;
>
> void main() {
> string email = r"\b[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}\b";

Well, soon you'd get CTFE and compile-time goodies...
Then just swap it with:
auto email = ctRegex!(r"\b[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}\b","i");
just keep in mind that it's fairly new and experimental stuff.
>
> foreach (line; stdin.byLine()) {
> foreach (m; match(line, email))) {
> writefln("%s[%s]%s", m.pre, m.hit, m.post);
> }
> }
> }
>
> Demonstrates:
> - Syntax
> - Imports
> - Raw string literals
> - Foreach with type deduction
> - CTFE with regex
> - "Batteries included" library (std.byLine(), regex, match, writefln)
> - General succinctness of D code
>
>> - Rotating the example is a brilliant idea, particularly if powered by a
>> continuous contest.
>> - This is less about the message, but how about an "explain this" link
>> in the corner of examples with little hints for C/C++/Java programmers,
>> so when clicked additional comments appear in the code or bubbles appear
>> above on hover or something, they would include small bits of text like
>> "auto can be used in place of a type to infer the type from what is
>> being assigned"... But better worded of course.
>> - Maybe it's just me, but I don't like the title being so long. I think
>> "The D Programming Language" on its own is fine. The rest of it may
>> still have a place, but it needs to be elsewhere in my opinion (even if
>> it just moves to the line below).
>> - Your summary sentence at the start reads "It pragmatically combines
>> efficiency, control, and modeling power, with safety and programmer
>> productivity." You then go on to talk about convinience, power and
>> efficiency... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_sentence The sentence
>> needs to be changed to reflect what you go on to detail below -
>> currently you're making statements without backing them up (note that
>> you do back up most of it, not all of it though, and the subheadings
>> don't make it obvious where you can find out more about the claims).
>> - convinience -> convenience
>> - I can't really fault the bullet points, they're a huge improvement.
>> - I have a reasonably large screen and can't see the news section
>> without scrolling. To me this means there is no news ;)
>>
>> I'm starting to nit-pick, it must be getting better.
>
> +1 to everything

Back to topic, I'm also pleased with the recent improvements.

-- 
Dmitry Olshansky