I'm just starting out learning D.

Andrei Alexandrescu's "The D Programming Language" is 10 years old, so is it still worth getting? (I don't know how much D has changed in 10 years.)

On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 10:28:48 UTC, mark wrote:
> I'm just starting out learning D.
>
> Andrei Alexandrescu's "The D Programming Language" is 10 years old, so is it still worth getting? (I don't know how much D has changed in 10 years.)

Depending on your background:

https://wiki.dlang.org/First_Language
https://wiki.dlang.org/Coming_From

On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:08:45 UTC, Ferhat Kurtulmuş wrote:
> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 10:28:48 UTC, mark wrote:
>> I'm just starting out learning D.
>>
>> Andrei Alexandrescu's "The D Programming Language" is 10 years old, so is it still worth getting? (I don't know how much D has changed in 10 years.)
>
> Depending on your background:
>
> https://wiki.dlang.org/First_Language
> https://wiki.dlang.org/Coming_From

Even if you are not new to programming this book would be a good start:
http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html

On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 10:28:48 UTC, mark wrote:
> I'm just starting out learning D.
>
> Andrei Alexandrescu's "The D Programming Language" is 10 years old, so is it still worth getting? (I don't know how much D has changed in 10 years.)

Andrei Alexandrescu's is still a good read for those who wants to learn D coming from other languages. What I like about the book is that he also could explain the reasoning behind different design choices. Some of it might be out of date but not that much and it is still useful.

On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:13:32 UTC, Ferhat Kurtulmuş wrote:
> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:08:45 UTC, Ferhat Kurtulmuş wrote:
>> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 10:28:48 UTC, mark wrote:
>>> I'm just starting out learning D.
>>>
>>> Andrei Alexandrescu's "The D Programming Language" is 10 years old, so is it still worth getting? (I don't know how much D has changed in 10 years.)
>>
>> Depending on your background:
>>
>> https://wiki.dlang.org/First_Language
>> https://wiki.dlang.org/Coming_From
>
> Even if you are not new to programming this book would be a good start:
> http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html

Thanks for the links.

I should have said that I find it a *lot* easier learning from a print book than online which is why I asked about the Alexandrescu book.

Has D changed enough in 10 years to outdate that book? I know most other languages have but I'm completely new to D.

On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:20:31 UTC, mark wrote:
> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:13:32 UTC, Ferhat Kurtulmuş wrote:
>> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:08:45 UTC, Ferhat Kurtulmuş wrote:
>>> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 10:28:48 UTC, mark wrote:
>>>> I'm just starting out learning D.
>>>>
>>>> Andrei Alexandrescu's "The D Programming Language" is 10 years old, so is it still worth getting? (I don't know how much D has changed in 10 years.)
>>>
>>> Depending on your background:
>>>
>>> https://wiki.dlang.org/First_Language
>>> https://wiki.dlang.org/Coming_From
>>
>> Even if you are not new to programming this book would be a good start:
>> http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html
>
> Thanks for the links.
>
> I should have said that I find it a *lot* easier learning from a print book than online which is why I asked about the Alexandrescu book.
>
> Has D changed enough in 10 years to outdate that book? I know most other languages have but I'm completely new to D.

Ali's book
http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html
is D's "official tutorial". You can buy a print copy. If you have experience with other languages, Mike Parker's Learning D is also an excellent choice. There's nothing wrong with Andrei's book for a beginner, but I would personally recommend those two over Andrei's for someone new to D.

On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:20:31 UTC, mark wrote:
> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:13:32 UTC, Ferhat Kurtulmuş wrote:
>> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:08:45 UTC, Ferhat Kurtulmuş wrote:
>>> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 10:28:48 UTC, mark wrote:
>>>> I'm just starting out learning D.
>>>>
>>>> Andrei Alexandrescu's "The D Programming Language" is 10 years old, so is it still worth getting? (I don't know how much D has changed in 10 years.)
>>>
>>> Depending on your background:
>>>
>>> https://wiki.dlang.org/First_Language
>>> https://wiki.dlang.org/Coming_From
>>
>> Even if you are not new to programming this book would be a good start:
>> http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html
>
> Thanks for the links.
>
> I should have said that I find it a *lot* easier learning from a print book than online which is why I asked about the Alexandrescu book.
>
> Has D changed enough in 10 years to outdate that book? I know most other languages have but I'm completely new to D.

I'll also throw out that the books by Andrei, Mike Parker, and Adam Ruppe are available on O'Reilly's Safari if you have access. You could see which you like best and order that one.

On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:35:51 UTC, bachmeier wrote:
> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:20:31 UTC, mark wrote:
>> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:13:32 UTC, Ferhat Kurtulmuş wrote:
>>> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:08:45 UTC, Ferhat Kurtulmuş wrote:
>>>> On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 10:28:48 UTC, mark wrote:
>>>>> I'm just starting out learning D.
>>>>>
>>>>> Andrei Alexandrescu's "The D Programming Language" is 10 years old, so is it still worth getting? (I don't know how much D has changed in 10 years.)
>>>>
>>>> Depending on your background:
>>>>
>>>> https://wiki.dlang.org/First_Language
>>>> https://wiki.dlang.org/Coming_From
>>>
>>> Even if you are not new to programming this book would be a good start:
>>> http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html
>>
>> Thanks for the links.
>>
>> I should have said that I find it a *lot* easier learning from a print book than online which is why I asked about the Alexandrescu book.
>>
>> Has D changed enough in 10 years to outdate that book? I know most other languages have but I'm completely new to D.
>
> I'll also throw out that the books by Andrei, Mike Parker, and Adam Ruppe are available on O'Reilly's Safari if you have access. You could see which you like best and order that one.

Both those books are published by Packt who normally have no quality control at all as I've discovered to my cost. However they do seem to have people with good D credentials as reviewers/foreword writers, so I guess I'll try Parker's after I've tried the "official" one.
Thanks.

On 1/13/20 2:28 AM, mark wrote:
> I'm just starting out learning D.
> 
> Andrei Alexandrescu's "The D Programming Language" is 10 years old, so is it still worth getting? (I don't know how much D has changed in 10 years.)
> 

Yes, Andrei's book is dated but it offers a great perspective on D and programming languages in general.

Unfortunately, my book is lagging behind as well. For example, I still have to replace post-blit with copy constructors.

I recommend Mike's book as well and Adam's book is a great complement to all the tutorials. Kai's book is great too but it is on vibe.d and I don't know how much vibe.d has changed since the book was written.

Ali

On Monday, 13 January 2020 at 11:58:51 UTC, mark wrote:

>
> Both those books are published by Packt who normally have no quality control at all as I've discovered to my cost. However

It's hit and miss in my experience. I've picked up some utter crap from them, but I've also found some real gems. There's no real vetting of the authors they sign, so the writing quality and knowledge level vary. Assuming those are up to snuff, much depends on feedback from the technical reviewers and the author's ability to evaluate the editor's revisions.

Packt's editors follow a rote process where certain words and phrases are *always* replaced from a set of alternatives and certain phrases are *always* inserted in certain circumstances (e.g., to introduce a code snippet) without any regard for the surrounding context. Fortunately, they give the author a chance to review the edits before publication. In my case, they were willing to accept my revision of the revisions (the ones I caught, anyway). Sadly, I never had a chance to do the same with the two chapters they published online.

I can attest that Adam's and Kai's books are worth the buy. I own and have enjoyed both. If either of them were to do a 2nd edition, I'd pick it up!