What is the D plan's to become a used language?

[Rikki Cattermole via Digitalmars-d]

On 20/12/2014 10:34 a.m., Laeeth Isharc wrote:
> On Friday, 19 December 2014 at 00:21:06 UTC, H. S. Teoh via
> Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 08:12:07PM +0000, Laeeth Isharc via
>> Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> [...]
>>> - better reference documentation.  I don't believe I lack the ability
>>> generally to figure things out, but the dlang.org library reference
>>> is far from being utterly clear if you don't start from a place of
>>> understanding the language and its concepts.  once you get the spirit
>>> of it, it all makes sense, but modern people don't tend to be
>>> distinguished by their grit and many will give up first.
>>
>> Please file documentation enhancement bugs in bugzilla.  I do try to
>> work on improving documentation when I have the time, but if nobody
>> points out a possible improvement, I might never think of it (or it
>> might take a long time before I notice it, esp. if I rarely use that
>> module!). I'm sure others who browse bugzilla from time to time will
>> also appreciate having documentation bugs to work on -- since they're
>> generally the lowest-hanging fruit that even most newbies should be
>> able to contribute to.
>
> I will register an account now, and try to make a start in the coming
> months.
>
>
>>> - better worked examples.  python is outstanding for this. you can
>>> figure out how to do anything by looking at someone else's example.
>>> of course there isn't presently the support for this, and I recognize
>>> that one attracts a different kind of person when it becomes easy to
>>> learn a language.  but such is the price of maturity.
>>
>> Please file doc enhancement requests for these too. :-) A lot of
>> Phobos documentation is unfortunately quite lacking in good examples.
>> I've done a few of them, but generally, having a bugzilla issue for it
>> is much better, because I may already know function X like the back of
>> my hand and so never notice that the examples aren't that good,
>> whereas if a newbie pointed out that the examples for X are unclear,
>> then I'd know there's an issue and look into how to explain X better.
>
> Will start keeping track and try to write some points up when I have a
> few of them.  It's often just the absence of anything more than a few
> lines.  Now I have spent some time with D, it becomes easier - and one
> can just go read the source.  But some people will be put off by that.
> There is a benefit from having a toll to enter too, but probably in the
> long run D's destiny cannot be to remain a tool solely for those with
> good taste, courage, and perseverance ;)
>
> One should be patient with oneself about where one starts from, and it
> may well be that this is the least of anyone's concerns for the time
> being, but it might be something to work towards, step by step, over time.
>
> Some simple examples for python:
> http://python.readthedocs.org/en/latest/howto/urllib2.html
> https://wiki.python.org/moin/HowTo/Sorting
> [compare the above with the rather terse docs on std.algorithm, which
> are the only ones that come up that I can see when doing a search on
> dlang.org for sorting]
>
> If D wants to be purely a systems language then people who can't figure
> it out for themselves should stick with something better suited to them
> - we all have limitations.  But I think what D intrinsically wants to be
> (just as an acorn wants to be an oak) is rather broader in scope, and if
> true that may  mean the ecosystem needs to grow in a different way to
> permit that.
>
> I met the global head of derivatives research for a big investment bank
> in London for a coffee the other day.  He knew of D and a bit about it.
> Right now they use mostly python.  He is interested, but he has a lot on
> his plate and not enough people. Beyond wanting more along the lines of
> the links above, it would be nice to be able to point him to a few
> tutorials that show here is how you use D to do certain basic business
> processes.  Like grabbing data from Fed web site, parsing, storing in
> HDF5 etc. And in other fields it must be similar.  You want to be able
> to tell your guy - here kid, you're a smart kid and our processes are
> too slow - go and take a look at this D thing and see if we can do
> something with it.  That's easier with more fleshed out use cases
> (Adam's stuff comes to mind).
>
> I am musing aloud more than suggesting anything specific.  I will try to
> start contributing a bit, although limited by time and frankly
> experience of D.
>
>
> Laeeth

Aka we need use cases and tutorials on the main site. Already been 
suggested. Really we need to get our act together and make it happen.