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.
* Leaning resources.
* Development tools available in D Window, Linux, Mac
* Setting up a development environment
* Resources from web/server-side developers (which I know more  about than the others by experience)
* Resources for game and graphics developers
* Resources for scientific computing
* Resources for desktops development (system, GUIs, ...??)
* Resources for data science (taken separately from general scientific computation)
* Resources for embedded programming
* Resources for ??? (Let me know what else I'm missing)
* How and where to get help
* D community platforms (forum, IRC, ???)
* How to contribute to D


The point of this post is to:
1. Know what helped you get started with D
2. What else you think its worth mentioning
3. Things that weren't immediately obvious when you started using D and you probably found out the hard way.


I'm trying to balance between keeping it short but detailed enough to make it useful to all sorts of people looking to get started with D.

I think I'll probably do a separate on on contributing back to the D ecosystem and tools...open source outreach kind of post.

So please let me have your input.

If web is your thing and you want to keep it short, why not a post focused on developing, deploying on servers, etc. on *nix? The desktop stuff involving Windows or OSX could be another post.

On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 11:43:49 UTC, Yatheendra wrote:
> If web is your thing and you want to keep it short, why not a post focused on developing, deploying on servers, etc. on *nix? The desktop stuff involving Windows or OSX could be another post.

It's not a detailed post or tutorial of any kind. What I meant is the actual resources to reference since I'm not in those communities so there may be tools I don't know about.

On 2020-07-04 12:32, aberba via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> So please let me have your input.

Well, most somewhat popular languages have curated lists such as this one:

https://github.com/zhaopuming/awesome-d

Back then, I enjoyed having access to posts that highlighted and explained key aspects of dlang:

https://seb.wilzba.ch/b/2018/02/the-expressive-c17-coding-challenge-in-d/
https://wiki.dlang.org/Component_programming_with_ranges
http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/advent-of-d/
https://dlang.org/blog/the-gc-series/

On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 17:47:30 UTC, oddp wrote:
> On 2020-07-04 12:32, aberba via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> So please let me have your input.
>
> Well, most somewhat popular languages have curated lists such as this one:
>
> https://github.com/zhaopuming/awesome-d
Yep, well aware of that.

>
> Back then, I enjoyed having access to posts that highlighted and explained key aspects of dlang:
>
> https://seb.wilzba.ch/b/2018/02/the-expressive-c17-coding-challenge-in-d/
> https://wiki.dlang.org/Component_programming_with_ranges
> http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/advent-of-d/
> https://dlang.org/blog/the-gc-series/

Ok good to know, I assume you came from the side where you're already comfortable with these.

On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 20:15:27 UTC, aberba wrote:
> On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 17:47:30 UTC, oddp wrote:
>> On 2020-07-04 12:32, aberba via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>>> So please let me have your input.
>>
>> Well, most somewhat popular languages have curated lists such as this one:
>>
>> https://github.com/zhaopuming/awesome-d
> Yep, well aware of that.
>
>>
>> Back then, I enjoyed having access to posts that highlighted and explained key aspects of dlang:
>>
>> https://seb.wilzba.ch/b/2018/02/the-expressive-c17-coding-challenge-in-d/
>> https://wiki.dlang.org/Component_programming_with_ranges
>> http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/advent-of-d/
>> https://dlang.org/blog/the-gc-series/
>
> Ok good to know, I assume you came from the side where you're already comfortable with these.

If you collect this information, will you collect it on wiki.dlang.org?

On Sunday, 5 July 2020 at 07:00:16 UTC, Jan Hönig wrote:
> On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 20:15:27 UTC, aberba wrote:
>> On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 17:47:30 UTC, oddp wrote:
>>> On 2020-07-04 12:32, aberba via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>>>> So please let me have your input.
>>>
>>> Well, most somewhat popular languages have curated lists such as this one:
>>>
>>> https://github.com/zhaopuming/awesome-d
>> Yep, well aware of that.
>>
>>>
>>> Back then, I enjoyed having access to posts that highlighted and explained key aspects of dlang:
>>>
>>> https://seb.wilzba.ch/b/2018/02/the-expressive-c17-coding-challenge-in-d/
>>> https://wiki.dlang.org/Component_programming_with_ranges
>>> http://jordi.inversethought.com/blog/advent-of-d/
>>> https://dlang.org/blog/the-gc-series/
>>
>> Ok good to know, I assume you came from the side where you're already comfortable with these.
>
> If you collect this information, will you collect it on wiki.dlang.org?

I'm not sure. My tone and flow doesn't quite go like the official language.

More human centered language...if that makes sense.

But if turns out interesting, I'm willing to do it for D. Especially since it's going to be an opinionated with strong focus on the most reliable, most quality resources.

On Sunday, 5 July 2020 at 11:22:12 UTC, aberba wrote:
> On Sunday, 5 July 2020 at 07:00:16 UTC, Jan Hönig wrote:
>> On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 20:15:27 UTC, aberba wrote:
>> If you collect this information, will you collect it on wiki.dlang.org?
>
> I'm not sure. My tone and flow doesn't quite go like the official language.
>
> More human centered language...if that makes sense.
>
> But if turns out interesting, I'm willing to do it for D. Especially since it's going to be an opinionated with strong focus on the most reliable, most quality resources.

New references you find could be added to the Articles or Tutorials pages under the "Documentation" section of the wiki. Those pages are reference lists, so writing style is not an issue.

* https://wiki.dlang.org/Articles
* https://wiki.dlang.org/Tutorials

--Jon

On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 10:32:12 UTC, aberba wrote:

> The point of this post is to:
> 1. Know what helped you get started with D

For what it is worth, as a hobby programmer;

Mostly the dlang.org site itself, including the tour and perusing through the documentation.  Also I referred to Ali's online D Programming Book as well. I often find introductory tutorials too brief and simple.

> 2. What else you think its worth mentioning

There seems to be some conflicting information online?  Perhaps due to outdated information.

But for tutorials, examples, I find it easier to understand when a "real life" usage for that function or language feature is used.  Take mixins for example, rather than mixin("int b = 5;") as an example, which is pointless, it is better to use an example where a mixin WOULD be required and useful.

I think this helps with comprehension.  When you are trying to grasp the concept, it just seems easier to understand it, when you can see what problems that concept would be used to solve.  It might make the example longer, but it makes the concept clearer and leads you faster to the "A-ha!" moment.


> 3. Things that weren't immediately obvious when you started using D and you probably found out the hard way.
>

How to properly use C++ classes in D,and what the rules and techniques are for doing that.  In particular, what you can, and can't do with a C++ class from D.  I was looking at using D for a FLTK based GUI program, but found myself looking at the few scant examples trying to figure out what I could do which would work, and would not work.

On Monday, 6 July 2020 at 12:19:12 UTC, BoraxMan wrote:
> On Saturday, 4 July 2020 at 10:32:12 UTC, aberba wrote:
>
>> The point of this post is to:
>> 1. Know what helped you get started with D
>
> For what it is worth, as a hobby programmer;
>
> Mostly the dlang.org site itself, including the tour and perusing through the documentation.  Also I referred to Ali's online D Programming Book as well.

Good to know. Ali's books is quite a gift to the community.

>
>> 2. What else you think its worth mentioning
>
> There seems to be some conflicting information online?  Perhaps due to outdated information.

That's a know issue. I'm not sure what can be done about that considering someone needs to do it.

>
> But for tutorials, examples, I find it easier to understand when a "real life" usage for that function or language feature is used.  Take mixins for example, rather than mixin("int b = 5;") as an example, which is pointless, it is better to use an example where a mixin WOULD be required and useful.
>
> I think this helps with comprehension.  When you are trying to grasp the concept, it just seems easier to understand it, when you can see what problems that concept would be used to solve.  It might make the example longer, but it makes the concept clearer and leads you faster to the "A-ha!" moment.

The Phobos docs is fairly good in comparison to what's available elsewhere. But sometimes I wished some of the could be more practical oriented like Ali's book style.

I guess you could say I could also do something about it, which is fair enough. Ha ha. I'm getting there.

For a long time I didn't know how the D ecosystem (development side) works.

>
>
>> 3. Things that weren't immediately obvious when you started using D and you probably found out the hard way.
>>
>
> How to properly use C++ classes in D,and what the rules and techniques are for doing that.  In particular, what you can, and can't do with a C++ class from D.  I was looking at using D for a FLTK based GUI program, but found myself looking at the few scant examples trying to figure out what I could do which would work, and would not work.

I believe now you've figured something out. A brief write-up on some readme, even if not much, could be useful to others looking to figure things out.