Hello everyone,

I'm going though TDPL and I just joined this list.

I've been looking for guidance on how to do web applications in D but I haven't found anything.

My background is not C/C++ but Java (and Delphi many years ago) so I have not only a new language but a new culture to get used to as well.

Could somebody give me some pointers?

Thanks
Jaime

On 22/04/2011 03:53, Jaime Barciela wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm going though TDPL and I just joined this list.
>
> I've been looking for guidance on how to do web applications in D but
> I haven't found anything.
>
> My background is not C/C++ but Java (and Delphi many years ago) so I
> have not only a new language but a new culture to get used to as well.
>
> Could somebody give me some pointers?
>
> Thanks
> Jaime

The simplest way to make a web application with D is to use CGI/FastCGI etc. There are also at least two frameworks in development (that I know of), one is significantly more developed.

http://arsdnet.net/dcode/ - see web.d, cgi.d etc, this is the most mature (that I know of).

https://github.com/mrmonday/serenity - One I'm working on. It's due to undergo significant changes and is lacking a lot of basic functionality, so I'd avoid it, for now at least.

-- 
Robert
http://octarineparrot.com/

Robert,

I think your effort is much needed. Thank you -- from a fellow Brown Coat :)

I was toying with the idea of writing a handler for Mongrel2 in D. But I'm a D n00b, it may take me a while. If anybody wants to pick that idea up and make it a reality that would be great.

In fact it will be a big reason for people to get into D in general.

I'll take a look at (Fast)CGI and arsdnet.net.

Thanks
Jaime


On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 3:27 AM, Robert Clipsham <robert@octarineparrot.com> wrote:
> On 22/04/2011 03:53, Jaime Barciela wrote:
>>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> I'm going though TDPL and I just joined this list.
>>
>> I've been looking for guidance on how to do web applications in D but I haven't found anything.
>>
>> My background is not C/C++ but Java (and Delphi many years ago) so I have not only a new language but a new culture to get used to as well.
>>
>> Could somebody give me some pointers?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Jaime
>
> The simplest way to make a web application with D is to use CGI/FastCGI etc. There are also at least two frameworks in development (that I know of), one is significantly more developed.
>
> http://arsdnet.net/dcode/ - see web.d, cgi.d etc, this is the most mature
> (that I know of).
>
> https://github.com/mrmonday/serenity - One I'm working on. It's due to undergo significant changes and is lacking a lot of basic functionality, so I'd avoid it, for now at least.
>
> --
> Robert
> http://octarineparrot.com/
>

With the disclaimer that I haven't use it myself, only read *some* of the docs, here is my (surely terrible) take at explaining the beast.

Mongrel2 is a neat idea based on 2 other projects:

 - 0mq ( http://www.zeromq.org/ ) which is an async communication
library that feels like sockets but behaves like a message queue. By
iMatix.
 - the original Mongrel http parser (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongrel_(web_server) ). Also by Zed Shaw.

The idea is that you have "handlers" that work on requests in an async way. They are processes outside the web server and you can have as many as you need anywhere in the network and can create and destroy them as needed without disturbing the web server. This is similar to FastCGI except you also get non-blocking I/O and a Publish/Subscribe model for your application.

The really neat part of this is that if you look at it from the server side looking out towards the browsers Mongrel2 essentially allows you to include web browsers in a 0mq topology. A really nice trick.

0mq is a c library and there is a D binding for it: https://github.com/itiu/zeromq-connector

But I haven't found a D handler for Mongrel2.


About ripping a FastCGI wrapper out of Serenity: Yes, I mean that is actually general enough that you can make it a separate project and use it yourself in Serenity. That would be great, not only for me but for many newcomers like me as well.


Jaime

On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 1:42 PM, Robert Clipsham <robert@octarineparrot.com> wrote:
> On 25/04/2011 16:56, Jaime Barciela wrote:
>>
>> Robert,
>>
>> I think your effort is much needed. Thank you -- from a fellow Brown Coat :)
>
> I just hope Captain Shiny Pants doesn't find out, I don't fancy my chances against him in a fight if he realizes I stole his ship's name ;P
>
>> I was toying with the idea of writing a handler for Mongrel2 in D. But I'm a D n00b, it may take me a while. If anybody wants to pick that idea up and make it a reality that would be great.
>
> I'm not entirely sure what it is after 10 minutes of clicking my way around its site - looks interesting, whatever it is (I hate sites like that!)
>
>> In fact it will be a big reason for people to get into D in general.
>>
>> I'll take a look at (Fast)CGI and arsdnet.net.
>
> If you want a quick and easy FastCGI wrapper, I can rip it out of Serenity for you without too much effort, save you reinventing the wheel. Not sure if the arsdnet code has a FastCGI wrapper, may just be CGI.
>
>> Thanks
>> Jaime
>
> --
> Robert
> http://octarineparrot.com/
>