Spreading the word about D

[Chris R. Miller]

Clay Smith wrote:
> Couldn't find a specific thread devoted to this topic, so started.
> 
> What do you think is the best way to promote D?
> 
> Here are some ideas I already know about and have seen used successfully.
> 
> 1. Articles - Write D articles and post on digg/reddit
> 2. Tutorials - Teach D newcomers how to use D
> 3. Libraries - Write a library for D / help out an existing D library
> 
> Here is a link that is also relevant to the subject: 
> http://www.digitalmars.com/d/howto-promote.html
> 
> I'm wondering, what are all the awesome, zany, weird, or unique ways you 
> can think of to promote the D language? Did I cover everything? Are 
> there more effective ways of promoting the language?

I think that more important than libraries are applications written in 
D.  Start writing an application, run into a need for a library, write 
the library and the application.  More applications will provide more 
sample code for newbies to read through, as well as much more publicity. 
If there was a short blurb on the "about" page of every application 
which said "Written in the Digital Mars D Programming Language" then - I 
think - D would gain a lot more publicity.  You know, "let your light so 
shine" and what-not.

If we can show just how powerful D is, then more people are bound to use 
it.  No one would use Java, Python, C, C++, Ruby, or anything else if it 
weren't that they've already seen the cool things those languages can do.

I think that Java is a huge example of this.  Java itself is relatively 
unremarkable, plain, almost boring language (trust me, I spent four 
years with it!).  But people took the solid tools it provides and wrote 
some wicked cool stuff in it.  For example, Java's video game 
development following was largely due to Runescape, which proved that 
games were possible in Java - way back in version 1.4!

I don't think we need to build really big applications for D, but little 
things that will help the ecosystem of applications snowball into a 
larger community will greatly help.

Those who're maintaining libraries, great job, don't stop!  We need a 
solid foundation to build on!  But I think that a lot of people take one 
look at D, see a mess of libraries on DSource (a lot of which are 
abandoned or don't even build correctly) and sign it off as a language 
with powerful features but a weak support system.  If we can demonstrate 
that D is more than just that, we'll have provided proof that D is not a 
cool gizmo, but a real, powerful tool.

At least, that's just my $0.02.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 258 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.puremagic.com/pipermail/digitalmars-d/attachments/20080621/52d938ec/attachment.pgp>