How I use D

[Dukc]

On Monday, 29 June 2020 at 09:09:14 UTC, Cym13 wrote:
>
> But first of all, why should you care?

This is a refreshing read that could believe coming right from 
the D blog. Not only that, it also is a piece of information how 
the language really works out in practice.

>
> You probably shouldn't. I'm not a software developer, my 
> company's business doesn't rely on D in any way, I'll never 
> write a killer app or case study and even if I were to share a 
> library it probably wouldn't be maintained more than a week. 
> I'm not someone that'll bring much value back in the language.

I do remember that you have many times helped people at the Learn 
forum. That already counts as bringing value.

>
> I'm a security consultant. My job is to find security issues 
> and exploit them. I'm sure most of you know about pentesters 
> yet my job goes a bit beyond common penetration testing. I 
> review websites and networks but also attack electronic 
> devices, perform malware analysis, source code review, 
> cryptographic review, human manipulation, lockpicking... 
> Anything goes.

Cool! If you someday want to write about code security to the D 
blog, I'd likely read it many times over.

> The difference with D is that I can start very scripty, using 
> no explicit type, then adding details in once I have a strong 
> skeleton. I know that style is often dismissed by more 
> industrial users but it's one of the core reasons why I use D.

Huh? I thought that your way is exactly the recommended practice. 
You're essentially doing prototyping before coding the final 
product, only in much smaller scale.

> But I can't very well blame anyone not to make malware 
> development easier and none of the issues I had should impact 
> normal development.

I do consider it a plus for a programming language if it's easy 
to write malware in it. Not only it helps whitehats like you, it 
also teaches regular programmers to think like hackers and thus 
secure their code better.

>
> I'm just a selfish user minding his own business.

So are we everyone from some perspective. Even if one contributes 
to open-source, there's got to be something one skimps on. Do we 
donate money to good causes? Do we keep our common-interest 
skills up (first aid, swimming, disaster survival etc)? Do we do 
any voluntary job for our hometowns? Do we look after our 
neighbours? For all of thing like these, there are some who can 
answer yes, but no-one contributes for the common good in every 
area of life.

>
> Then there's the omnipresent negativity of a huge chunk of the 
> community...  it's rough. I used to read the forums daily until 
> I noticed that it stressed me a lot, made me feel angry and sad 
> and that it wasn't the place I wanted to be. Now I mostly keep 
> an eye on Announce.

Understandable. If one is feeling angry, staying out is the the 
correct thing. That way it does not add up to the negativity.

>
> I hope it stays that way even though I understand why most 
> trends I see on the forum target more "industrial" users (by 
> which I mean working on month or year-long software development 
> projects in a professionnal setting). I have no expectations 
> from that post, but I wonder how many others use D everyday at 
> work in a similar fashion.

Your way of use is IMO just as important as the large-scale way. 
D is officially trying to be a scripting language among it's 
other merits, which means that you're using it just as it's meant 
to be.

And you are not alone. While I do long-term projects, there is 
use for scripting every now and then. I transitioned from Windows 
to Linux an year ago, but I still have not learned to do anything 
complex with Unix scripts. So when there's mass file handling to 
be done, I'm likely to roll a D script. Also I did succesfully 
use the D compiler as a simulator for a school assignment that 
wasn't even intended for programmers.