Enough D to Make a Living?

[Chris Wright via Digitalmars-d]

On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 15:34:02 +0000, Paul wrote:
> I'm in between engineering jobs and exploring the idea of getting into
> programming for a living...specifically D.
> 1) Is there enough D demand for someone to make a living (bread and
> water :} ) at it?

There's enough for someone to do so, and maybe enough for several hundred 
to do it in the whole world. Sorry to say your odds aren't that great.

> 2) I've programmed industrial automation controllers using graphical and
> text-based languages and wrote a few small command line tools in D for
> myself. How long would it take to become "employable"?

If you start your own business, you're immediately employable.

If you go for portfolio-oriented work, then you will be employable once 
you've done something noteworthy in your field.

> 3) Is there much value in taking programming classes that don't deal
> with D?

You will want to learn SQL.

You need to learn the concepts behind asymptotic complexity, at least 
enough to recognize when you've got asymptotic complexity problems.

You need familiarity with common data structures.

If you are working in a particular field and there is a class on that, it 
is worthwhile. For instance, if you are doing computer vision, machine 
learning, or natural language processing, you will benefit from studying 
that specifically, regardless of what language you use.

You need practice programming to be effective, and that practice will 
largely be transferrable from other languages to D.