Incomprehensible compiler errors

[Jakob Ovrum]

On Monday, 30 July 2012 at 22:54:59 UTC, Stuart wrote:
> I'm about ready to give up here. I like the idea of D, but it's 
> like using fucking Linux: Absolutely everything needs to be 
> compiled before you can use it; and nothing will compile 
> because you need to do fifty other goddamn things that aren't 
> mentioned in the readme, so you have to post on dozens of 
> sodding forums for a week hoping someone throws you a bone.
>
> All I want is to be able to write a GUI application using 
> phrases like "button1.dock = Fill". Is that so much to ask? 
> Apparently it is.
>
> DFL won't compile. D-IDE doesn't work at all. VisualD crashes 
> all the time. The Eclipse IDE plugin doesn't work either. None 
> of the IDEs have any kind of reliable intellisense. The 
> optional "module" keywords aren't optional. The whole fucking 
> thing's a shambles, just like everything else designed for 
> Linux.
>
> It's really getting on my tits. Even using MFC is easier than 
> this.

You're expecting the same diversity and quality of the toolchain 
of a small, relatively new (D2 is from 2007) programming language 
as you do from giants like C++ and .NET languages. This is 
unreasonable. D is run by a couple of language designers and its 
community - there is no backing from massive corporations or 
anything like that.

That does not mean we can't have good things - the community is 
really pulling its weight, despite its relatively small size (but 
growing at a remarkable rate) we have all kinds of great tools, 
including three up to date compilers, several on-going IDE 
projects, a growing multitude of libraries and bindings, etc.

As for VisualD, a lot of people - including myself - use it 
without issue. It has never crashed for me. I recommend you 
report your problem to the developer, or join development 
yourself. If you just want a stable production environment, start 
by disabling the clearly marked *experimental* auto-complete 
feature if you have it enabled.

Your swipes at Linux are ignorant and non-constructive. Besides, 
D has its roots on Windows, it's not "designed for Linux" in any 
way.

Your issues with compiling DFL are rooted completely in your own 
ignorance of the C/C++/D compilation model. You have a lot to 
learn and you should know that by now. Maybe tone down the 
aggressiveness a little; you've been generating a lot of noise 
lately.