What's the current state of D?

[Steve Teale]

Georg Wrede Wrote:

> Things we have (like every binary release [and I assume, an implicit 
> promise of keeping it that way] downloadable forever), the source code 
> to /both/ the front end and the back end distributed every time -- for 
> both reading example usage, learning by looking at unittests, and for a 
> deep understanding of both the compiler and the library code in detail, 
> ... it's stuff like this we don't advertise enough. (( Of course, not to 
> mention actual language highlights that are really smashing! But they're 
> outside of this post.))
> 
> And the parts of D that are unique, we don't see them splashed all over 
> the net either. It can and should be possible without the PR budget of 
> Oracle, too.
> 
> Anybody over 40 knows that Pascal was an excellent language for 
> programmming classes. (Yes, it was even created for that purpose, 
> originally.) But then, nobody at all knows that out of all "known" 
> languages, D is (by FAR!!) the one a university /should/ choose as the 
> introductory language. Hah, and even fewer can imagine that D is the 
> language they should use in advanced classes! And, thus, virtually 
> nobody knows that being blessed with having originally learned a 
> language that has the strength to carry you all the way from intro to 
> PhD, makes you seriously privileged. And with a robust and solid mother 
> tongue like this, forages into C++, Java, Ruby, Haskell, Scheme, ASM, 
> and the like, will seem like a breeze, and don't destroy or *undo* /the 
> very foundations of/ your world as a programmer.

Yes! I may continue to bitch, but you are so right. D is extraordinarily cool! Poa sana as I could say in the domain of my current residency.

Somehow we have to advance the announcements and learn newsgroups so that they are primary, and change perceptions such that the "suggestions for the next version of D" newsgroup - currently the main newsgroup - is a specialist affair that most readers think they can safely ignore.

Walters logic is unchallengeable, but most of life isn't about logic, it's about perceptions.

D is great. How do we spread that particular perception?