How useful is D

[Lars Ivar Igesund]

Lars E. wrote:

> The language itself seems to be very interesting. Unfortunately, there
> does not seem to be a single complete and stable GUI toolkit, which is a
> real show stopper - since I can only imagine using D for small GUI
> client apps on the desktop right now (where it beats Java and C# easily
> since it compiles directly to native code and links everything in
> statically - no giant framework download required).
> 
> On the server side, it is impratical to not use Apache or IIS to host
> your applications, since most firewalls block anything but port 80, and
> most servers also host web content.
> 
> So if you cannot use it on the server side nor on the client side, what
> is it useful for?
> 
> Does anyone here use it commercially or do you only toy around with it
> in your spare time?

Quite a few are planning to use D for commercial applications, but it is
slow going since we're somewhat lacking in the libraries department. The
applications I know of sofar use little gui (simulations for instance), and
some stuff is happening in the server realm. Thinking that everyone use
Apache or IIS, is the wrong approach, since most D users are very
resourceful and more often than not have full access to the servers and
ports used. Where you'll find D most used though in this early phase, is
where small standalone tools can be used for either processing, sending
emails, etc. Also, as said by others, a disproportionate amount of D
developers want to make games, and preferably their own engine :)

-- 
Lars Ivar Igesund
blog at http://larsivi.net
DSource & #D: larsivi