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

[via Digitalmars-d]

On Thursday, 15 January 2015 at 15:38:05 UTC, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> I could totally fill in the "project spotlight" with stuff from 
> that repo for at least a year, not even kidding. But I don't 
> want it to be all about me!

Right, and it is more fun if you get response on reddit etc, so 
something short and useful that the reader can expand for her/his 
own cute little gadget is probably a good choice?

I've noticed that some blogs have links back to reddit with the 
link "discuss this article on reddit" at the bottom.

> (and oauth.d isn't new, i wrote that like three years ago... it 
> had to be updated a while ago because twitter deprecated v1 of 
> their api, but other than that, it hasn't changed much)

Oauth2.0 is not so complicated, but it is annoying to wade 
through all the irrelvant stuff on the web... So I'd say that 
would be a nice topic. A cut'n'paste solution of how to connect 
to "famous" services.

> a year ago). Soon to be replaced by the dependency-free 
> simpledisplay.d, simpleaudio.d, joystick.d combo.

Sounds fun! Could break it up into 6 parts over 6 weeks:
- how to load images
- draw stuff on the screen
- control stuff on the screen
- simple physics simulation
- add sounds to collision events
- play lunar lander (or some other simple game)

> color.d - a color struct for RGBA, also does CSS color string 
> read/writing, HSL <-> RGB, some color manipulation, alpha 
> blending, and image base classes including palette to true 
> color and true color to palette (quantization).

The CSS stuff might be a useful startingpoint for Manu's 
std.colour library?

> csv.d - simple csv reader, predates std.csv (and is a bit 
> simpler)

All common data format conversions would be useful to have in 
cookbook format on the web. This is something I typically google 
for because I it is more like a "bump in the road" than a domain 
specific thing.

> database.d - base class for RDBMS access. Also includes basic 
> ORM and query builder in the form of DataObject and 
> SelectBuilder

Also a nice topic. Especially if you cover the configuration 
gotchas for common databases that is incredibly boring to get 
stuck on. A "problem solver" article, perhaps?

> dom.d - XML and HTML parsing and manipulation, including CSS 
> selectors and other tools that can help for implementing a 
> browser. API inspired by modern Javascript DOM, capable of 
> scraping tag soup web pages.

Spiders are a fun topic too. Like "how to extract links from 
reddit" or some simple NLP heuristics that looks for keywords 
"hot topics this week".

> joystick.d - code for accessing XBox 360 controllers (and 
> similar ones, like the PS1 controller via usb) on Windows and 
> Linux.

Stuff like this sounds like a hit. Fun to read about even if you 
don't need it. I think geeks like to learn about what is under 
the hood of things they use.

> jsvar.d - a var type similar to Javascript, usable in D. Can be 
> used to read and write JSON with a natural syntax and other 
> dynamic type tasks.

Nice topic. "How to create your own dynamic type in D."

> script.d - a script interpeter based on jsvar.d. The script 
> language is like a cross of D and Javascript. Made for API 
> convenience - very very easy to embed in an application.

I think these "continued next week" hooks where you get something 
complete to play with in each issue are nice.

> simpleaudio.d - access to WinMM on Windows and ALSA on Linux 
> for waveform sound I/O and MIDI I/O.

Yup, "under the hood" topic. I like to read those even if I don't 
need them.

> game.d - helper functions for writing games (bringing together 
> the display, audio, and joystick stuff). I have OpenGL texture 
> stuff written now, almost done with the high level input api, 
> and some math stuff that will probably be in there.
>
> model.d - loading and displaying a 3d model format with open gl.
>
> midi.d, wav.d - loading, saving, and working with midi and wav 
> files

Yep, all good stuff!

Nice concept you have going here.