How useful is D

[Sean Kelly]

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).

Why is that?

> 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.

I'm not sure I understand.  D is a programming language, not a server 
technology.  You could write a program to listen on any port you choose.

> So if you cannot use it on the server side nor on the client side, what 
> is it useful for?

What is C++ useful for?  It has all the same limitations you mention above.

> Does anyone here use it commercially or do you only toy around with it 
> in your spare time?

Spare time.  I would be hesitant to produce a commercial application in 
D before it hits 1.0, even if I do think it's a wonderful language. 
About the only exception would be if I were freelancing and working on a 
small closed-source application for a customer--then I might consider 
it.  Until D is "ready" I don't see a point in training others, 
justifying its use, etc, simple because I personally think the language 
is fantastic.


Sean