Why are homepage examples too complicated?

[Benjiro via Digitalmars-d]

When people have a choice between a multitude of website, 
programming languages, ... people make choices fast.

Personally moved over 5 different programming languages in 3 
months time trying to find the ideal match. So my attention span 
is not exactly small. But when faced with a entire series of 
"next gen" languages like Go, Haxe, Nim, ... you simple make 
choice fast.

Its not obvious to people already long time into a language, as 
to what small details can push people to a language.

Its exactly that whole template & java like one liners that made 
me think: "great, another java wannabe". It can give the 
impression the language is designed around that feature.  And 
yes, the whole negative forum posts about split community, D1 vs 
D2. Some people ranting about feature lacking. Some people 
ranting about GC. Those also did not help to push me to D. Why 
wast time on something, when there are other alternatives to try 
out first? Do you understand now?

And i am not joking around, when stating that the syntax and 
negative posts regarding D, drove me towards other languages 
before coming back to D as a "whats left, that might fit my 
plans" attitude. Most people when they make up there minds, they 
never come back and get stuck in those other languages.


As you state, your showing features that some people may be 
explicated looking for so why not show a even more complicated 
example that shows even more of D features. Scare away even more 
beginners. *lol*. Just kidding ;)

If one has multiple examples on the website, starting simple to 
more complex, that can easily be selected. There is nothing wrong 
with a proposal like that. Its not going to drive away anybody 
looking for a C/C++ enhanced language because its all over the 
front page. But it just may help a few people stay longer. The 
Learn section takes longer to make up your mind because its a 
full tutorial, then one minute looking at a few examples if you 
like the style ;)

And in all honesty, this discussion did point out another thing 
lacking from the website: There is no easily visible link where 
people can see more example ( like Rosetta Code ).


So the suggestions are:

1. Home page:
* Add more example to the home page.
* Switchable with buttons like [1][2][3][Run].
* Remove the Arg/Inc buttons, they just confuse people.

2. On the learn page
* Remove the Eye button. Again, has no use but confuses people ( 
or place it somewhere else ).
* Place another navigation link in the top right buttons. So you 
do not have the whole navigation line "< Run D program locally 4 
/ 4 Imports and modules >" constantly shifting around. Its 
annoying.

3. Add a example page ( a la Rosetta Code ) with a clear link on 
the home page. The tour/Learn does not count.


Like i said, my job is website design and its easy as a outsider 
to see what points can confuse people ( because hell, they 
confused me *lol* ). The website is actually one of the better 
websites for "next gen" languages that i have seen. It just needs 
a few minor tweaks left and right to increase "usability" ( from 
a new visitor point of view ).

I said it before, think of Dlang as a commercial product. Not 
just as a community project that will draw in already mature 
programmers looking for a C/C++ alternative. Because you simple 
limit your market potential that way. Why pick D when you have 
C++ already or the dozen alternative languages. Marketing is not 
a easy thing to do and a lot is in the details.