Newbie to D initial suggestion

[Edward Diener]

I am an experienced C++ programmer who became interested in D only after 
the recent discussion on comp.lang.c++ between Walter Bright and various 
C++ experts regarding undefined or implementation defined areas of C++. 
I realized during reading that discussion that while I would not stop 
programming in C++ I was sympathetic to many of Mr. Bright's points 
regarding C++.

I have a basic initial suggestion, as I am persuing the D pdf dcument I 
downloaded in order to understand of what the language consisted. The 
basic suggestion regards documentation for D itself. I believe the most 
important thing for getting others to be interested in a new programming 
language is the unglamorous chore of presenting the documentation for 
that language to others. While the pdf documentation I am reading is 
adequately thorough, I have a few suggestions:

1) A link to the downloaded documentation for D should be almost the 
first thing a viewer should see when they click on the D portion of the 
Digital Mars web site. It should be front and center. I realize there is 
a separate Language link on the left hand side which takes me to an 
online set of pages which explain D and I realize that somewhere down on 
the initial page there is a line which reads "This document is available 
as a pdf" with a link on that final word, but I think this is still too 
indirect. The normal reaction to any new language is to download the 
documentation detailing that language so that it can be read and/or 
printed at the end-user's leisure.

2) Since D is highly related to C++ there should be a document for C++ 
programmers detailing the differences between D and C++, which again is 
downloadable almost immediately from the main web page of D. I did not 
find any such document although there is occasional mention of these 
diferences in the pdf document I downloaded.

3) There is evidently a version 2.0 and above of D. Perhaps it is not 
meant for anybody to become interested in this version who is just 
attempting to learn what D is about, but the complete lack of any 
documentation which I could find about this version and/or its 
difference from the 1.0 version is not a good thing.

The pdf document I am reading is a good technical document but I would 
rather, as an experienced C++ programmer, have read a downloadable 
document detailing the differences between D and C++ than having to wade 
through each section of the pdf document attempting to see what they are.

I realize that writing documentation is the chore which nearly every 
programmer hates but when one is creating a new computer language it is 
almost an absolute necessity if one wants to get others to try what one 
has created. So I hope the mild suggestions mentioned here will help the 
D community in their efforts to tell other interested programmers, 
especially C++ programmers, why they might consider using D.

Now I will continue to read on about D at my leisure, and see if I am 
interested in pursuing my initial interest in it. If I have any general 
suggestions about the language I hope they will be taken in the spirit 
of things intended to improve things rather than as an antagonism to the 
ideas presented there.