Using D

[Iain Buclaw via Digitalmars-d]

.On 12 July 2014 20:55, Joakim via Digitalmars-d
<digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, 12 July 2014 at 10:27:12 UTC, Russel Winder via Digitalmars-d
> wrote:
>>
>> In the end it is about community rather than the programming language
>> per se. Java created a huge community that was evangelical. Go has
>> rapidly created an active community that is evangelical. Python has
>> rapidly created a large evangelical community. D has slowly created a
>> small community that hasn't as yet created the outward looking
>> evangelical aspect. Where are the user groups having local meetings is
>> my main metric. Java definitely, Go definitely, C++ sort of, D no. This
>> is the real problem for D I feel. Without local user groups meeting up
>> you don't get exposure and you don't get traction in the market.
>
>
> This seems like an outdated way of looking at things.  I've never attended a
> user group in my life, yet I've picked up several technologies since I left
> college a while back.  When I found out that such user groups existed, I
> thought they were kind of quaint, a remnant of pre-internet times.
>
> As for an evangelical community, did C and C++ have those?  I don't think
> anyone was ever really evangelical about Obj-C as it took off over the last
> couple years, riding on the coattails of the meteoric rise of iOS.
> Evangelism can help, but it can be more a sign of the evangelist's
> enthusiasm than a tech worth using.  Maybe D isn't ready for evangelism yet,
> there's something to be said for getting the product in gear before
> advertising it.
>
> Not saying there's anything wrong with DUGs, higher bandwidth interaction
> and all, but the current approach of D developers giving talks at outside
> gatherings or putting DConf talks online seems like a much better way to
> spread the gospel to me.  Certainly both can be done, I just wouldn't use
> DUGs as the main metric.
>

We are social creatures, and the fact is that people just get more
done when they are in a room together.  The beer probably helps more
in agreeing also. ;-)


> I've said it a couple times before, but it bears repeating: what D needs is
> a killer app.  Rails showed the ease of use of ruby.  iOS made Obj-C a star.
> D needs to show its utility by spawning a similar killer app, that's what
> will prove its worth in the market.  We can't know what that will be, but if
> D is any good, it will probably happen at some point.

Killer... app... ugh, how evangelical.