dtutor.org: a call to action

[Tyro[17]]

The main contributors of D are doing a wonderful job of enhancing the 
language. I can confidently say that we are leagues ahead of where we 
stood a just two years ago. But there has been a long cry for 
documentation that has gone unanswered: not because they refuse to 
cooperate but rather, because they are a small volunteer force, occupied 
by real demands to address the quirks of the language, and lack the time 
to all issues by themselves.

It stands then that the community can make a conscious effort to address 
some of the outstanding issues. As such, I have chosen to champion the 
tutorial/documentation effort. Though, I possess very little programming 
experience but am willing to try and am hereby soliciting your 
assistance in making this a reality.

dtutor.org is an active domain dedicated to providing tutorials for the 
language. I will require content contributors but before we can begin to 
provide content there are a couple of issues to address:

I. Features to be supported

    Interactive Tutorials - Users must be able to modify and execute 
examples in place to observe side effects.

    Interactive Books - A number of free books exist around the internet 
that can be ported to D. The first two that come to mind are How to 
"Think Like a Computer Scientist", "Problem Solving with Algorithms and 
Data Structures Using Python" and Ali Çehreli's very own "Programming in D".

    Problems - Staged ICPC problems for users to attempt. Solutions may 
be submitted online for comparison against previously submitted 
solutions to determine efficiency ranking and users may choose to create 
and account to keep track of progress.

    Online Judge - to be used to determine accuracy and efficiency of 
submitted solutions to problems and planned programming contests.

    Forum - Unlocked to individual users per problem after solution 
accepted by Online Judge.

II. Look and Feel

Look and feel of the site will be largely influenced by two things: The 
DConf website and this little gem which provides encouragement for the 
ideas behind interactive tutorials/books:

	Runestone (https://github.com/bnmnetp/runestone);

I came across it while searching for ideas on how to get started with 
dtutor.org and must admit: it is a fascinating little project.

I am wondering if there are any Python experts (or experts in general) 
out there willing to assist in porting it to D? It comes with built in 
support for Python and C/C++ among other languages. However, because 
dtutor.org aims to promote all things D, it would aid greatly to have a 
D implementation which removes all external dependencies and support 
vice implementing D support for the original project. By doing this we 
can showcase the strengths of DMDScript, vibe and other technology 
already available in D.

Logo: My idea for the logo is simply this (see attachment):

	D!(tutor).org

As Andrei would say: destroy!

III. Constraints

DMDScript for web scripting
Vibe for hosting (diet templates)
MangoDB for database

IV. Timeline

The hope is for complete functionality by DConf 2014.
Shooting for Initial Launch by September.

Calling all website designers, database developers, authors and D 
enthusiast. Lend a hand in eliminating this problem.

Andrew
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