compiler for ubuntu x86-64

[Timon Gehr]

On 11/23/2012 06:56 PM, Mark Morss wrote:
> Hello to all.  I have just purchased a copy of Andrei A's book on D and
> I'm about halfway through it. I have some projects in mind to which I
> would like to apply this very interesting language.
>
> I am working on an 8-core machine with x86-64 chips and Ubuntu 10.04. Am
> I right that there is no dmd binary available for my machine??

No.

>  I only see i386 and amd64 options when I look at the binary download options.
>

amd64 is x86-64 and therefore what you want. It is named that way 
because AMD introduced it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amd64

> Apparently a build of dmd from source is impossible because the dmd
> backend is proprietary?  (This would seem to me to be a stumbling block
> to D's acceptance, but that is not my concern.)
>

A build of dmd from source is possible, but you may not redistribute the 
backend source code without explicit permission.

https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/dmd

> There is an LLVM compiler, ldc, available via Ubuntu's package manager.
> Is this any good?
>

The package is usually out of date. You can build ldc from source:

https://github.com/ldc-developers/ldc
https://github.com/ldc-developers/ldc/wiki/Installation

There is also gdc, which uses the gcc backend:

https://github.com/D-Programming-GDC/GDC
http://www.gdcproject.org/wiki/Installation

> I would rather try out D than use some other options that I have.
> However my experience with compiled languages has convinced me that the
> efficiency of one's compiler, as well its ability actually to implement
> everything that's supposed to be possible in the given language, is a
> very significant concern.  I don't want to get up to my elbows in D and
> discover that something doesn't compile

You will likely hit some compiler bugs of this kind at this point. 
Usually they are reasonably easy to work around.

> or doesn't execute so very well after being compiled.
>

This is very rare.

> I seached the list for this concern and came up with nothing. But I
> apologize if the Ubuntu x86-64 issue has already been addressed.
>
> Best to all.