One Stop Shop?

[Joakim via Digitalmars-d]

On Saturday, 30 August 2014 at 19:19:48 UTC, Sativa wrote:
> I think it would be helpful to have the d lang site host 
> tutorials/lessons on various aspects of D. D is hard to use for 
> certain things like gui's, graphics(ogl, dx, etc), etc... not 
> necessarily because D can't do these things but because the 
> information is not out there.
>
> If The D site hosted, sort of like a wiki, but with properly 
> designed articles about how to do things in D, maybe more 
> people would start to use it?
>
> For example,
>
> I'd like to get into graphics and gui programming using D. I 
> could use something like C#.NET which would make life easier 
> but I don't like the drawbacks of C#.
>
> But trying to find coherent information, say, to draw an image 
> on screen using opengl and D is nearly impossible... and way 
> too time consuming, compared to finding similar information 
> using C/C++ or most other popular languages.
>
> Getting D to work in these scenarios are already complicated 
> enough. Usually it relies on the work of one person who hasn't 
> made it clear how to do it well. I know D can do graphics, I've 
> seen it done... I've even read some tutorials on it... but 
> nothing is clear, relevant, or updated.
>
> Having a quick way to access stuff in the categories like
>
> Sound(playing sounds, VST design)
>
> Graphics(Gui, 2D/3D using open GL, etc...)
>
> etc...
>
>
> e.g., suppose I want to create a vst in D... google "D lang 
> vst", and the only relevant site that comes up is:
>
> http://le-son666.com/software/vstd/
>
> Woo hoo! looks like someone did the work for us!
>
> But seriously? There is just enough information to hang myself. 
> Do I really want to go down this path and potentially waste 
> countless hours trying to get something to work that might not?
>
> I feel many others go through the same thought processes.
>
> If there was a wiki like site for D that is based on tutorials 
> and experiences/results then surely it would help a lot of 
> people. If people could contribute there problems or solutions 
> in a unified and connected way, it would be easier to find the 
> relevant information than it is now.
>
> About 95% of the time when I search for something that I want 
> to do in D, I get a forum post... and about 15% of the time it 
> actually leads to something useful. Maybe bout 5% of the time 
> it actually solves my problem.
>
> There is just so much junk out there and all the gems are lost. 
> Most of the gems need some polishing to show their true beauty.

Sorry to say, but this is how a community-backed language works.  
D does not have a giant corporate sponsor like C#, who can pay 
for reams of documentation and tutorials.  You're expected to 
like D enough to learn the language on your own 
(http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html) and then either be able 
to pick up OpenGL on your own (http://open.gl/) or know it 
already and be able to apply D to the OpenGL API, which as a 
C-style API is pretty straightforward to call from D.

Yes, it would be nice if D had a bunch of tutorials for all these 
things, but they don't usually exist right now because the 
community hasn't written them, for a variety of reasons including 
nobody is paying for it.  It would be nice if O'Reilly or whoever 
started selling such tutorials, but maybe D isn't big enough yet 
for them to care.  D is still in the early stages of adoption 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations), and 
since you're not getting charged lots of money for the privilege, 
as you might to buy early cutting-edge hardware like Google Glass 
or Oculus Rift, it will cost you time instead.

Sorry to say you'll just have to keep panning around for gems, as 
that's where D is at right now.  Those of us who stick around 
think the time spent is worth it.