Help here: How did you get started with D.

[solidstate1991]

On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 10:32:12 UTC, aberba wrote:
> I'm looking to do a general but brief post on getting started 
> with D. Not everything will be written by me since I'm aware 
> there's several existing resources...more of creating an entry 
> point to all those resources (and writing more only when 
> necessary). I'm looking to cover areas such as:
>
> * Pros of D... general D's strength kind of getting you excited.

I was looking a more "system-level" alternative to Java. As C++ 
looked a bit scary and very janky (it's like programming in two 
languages at the same time, also there's the header), I took a 
look at D I've heard a few things at the time.

> * Leaning resources.

Ali Mehdi's book a good resource and starting point. Also it's 
very similar to other languages, like C and Java.

> * Development tools available in D Window, Linux, Mac

When I started out, I used a barely functioning CodeBlocks 
plugin, later I switched to Xamarin, then to VS2015/17, now I'm 
using VSCode for coding and compiling. I also use VS2019 as a 
Windows debugger, while I'll either go with GDB or LLDB for Linux.

> * Setting up a development environment

Just install DMD (LDC if you need the optimization and/or 
vectors), and VSCode with it's codeD extension.

> * Resources for game and graphics developers

Unfortunately there's not much at the moment due to the lack of 
engines for the language, however I'm planning on writing an 
article on the basic tips on game engine writing in D.

> * How and where to get help

This forum, also most of the D community is good. I only found 
one or two "weird" people, that's all.

> * D community platforms (forum, IRC, ???)

Join the D language Discord if you haven't yet.

> * How to contribute to D

Mine is mostly through creating my own libraries around stuff 
that I don't find in other libraries.
No container library that satisfies my needs? Write 
`collections-d`! Need a better image library than what currently 
is available? Write `dimage`!
Most of them don't have a good README.MD yet, my goal is to fix 
this issue ASAP.