My thoughts & experiences with D so far, as a novice D coder

[Jesse Phillips]

Definitely need to add some updates to the docs. Long story:

D provides an iterable interface called a Range. There are two 
base forms, inputRange and outputRange.

Dynamic Arrays have the privilege of being, a inputRange, 
outputRange, and a container.

An array however doesn't operate as you might expect, especially 
when using a function called append on it.

An output range consists of the ability call put for Range and 
Element (defined in std.range) for a dynamic array this means you 
can assign to front.

ubyte[] buffer;
buffer.append!ubyte(42);

The append function takes an outputRange, if we drill down the 
call that would be made (ignoring my value isn't correct)

buffer.front = 42;
buffer.popFront();

Thus when using an array as an outputRange it
1) Must have a size (hence the error: "Attempting to fetch the 
front of an empty array of ubyte")
2) Starts at the beginning (hence the observation: "instead of 
appending it behaves like write()")
3) Is consumed (You didn't run into this)

That is why arrays are awkward and the example makes use of 
appender (a more traditional form of an outputRange)

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The write function seems a little odd as it uses random access 
(indexing).

Instead of assigning to front like append does it assigns at 
index buffer[0]...

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The implementation of append is what you will find more in 
idiomatic D. In fact if the module was written today write 
wouldn't exist and append would probably have been named write.

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"Error: __overloadset isn't a template"

That needs fixed, it usually does a better job of specifying 
conflicting modules across modules.

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"It seems to me as importing std.bitmanip somehow adds new 
properties"

D provides UFCS (Uniform Function Call Syntax). For a given type 
A, foo(A a) is callable in both foo(a) and a.foo().

(Historical note: UFCS is recent addition, a bug allowed it to 
work with dynamic arrays like you see in these docs)