May 11, 2007
negerns wrote:

> I recently started to write a simple book on D for my colleagues and maybe for those interested in the D programming language here in my country. I am not really aware of how to do a book but I have based my outline on several programming books. I don't know if it'll turn out well or not but I wanted to try my hand on it and learn.

Is it written in English ?

If you are willing to release the text of your book under the FDL
(GNU Free Documentation License), you can post it to either Wiki ?

> I can't attach it here since it's in a pdf format and it's size is more than the NNTP server allows.

You would need to submit the sources and just not the PDF, though.

--anders
May 11, 2007
Denton Cockburn wrote:
> Anyone planning a 'proper' book about D?
> I'd nominate someone like Andrei, he's got the experience with this stuff.

As part of using D for my honours project, my supervisor asked me to write a primer for D.  Currently, I'm writing it from the perspective of starting with C, going over the differences between it and D, and then moving on to the stuff that isn't in C, along with how to do common tasks like string manipulation.

I'll definitely be releasing it once it's finished; just have to finish it first :P  I'm thinking a CC license, at this point.

	-- Daniel

-- 
int getRandomNumber()
{
    return 4; // chosen by fair dice roll.
              // guaranteed to be random.
}

http://xkcd.com/

v2sw5+8Yhw5ln4+5pr6OFPma8u6+7Lw4Tm6+7l6+7D i28a2Xs3MSr2e4/6+7t4TNSMb6HTOp5en5g6RAHCP  http://hackerkey.com/
May 11, 2007
Anders F Björklund wrote:

> Is it written in English ?
Yes it is.

> If you are willing to release the text of your book under the FDL
> (GNU Free Documentation License), you can post it to either Wiki ?
I used OpenOffice to create it and it is still in the very early stages. The book is dependent on files (.d snippets converted to HTML) that I reference inside. Maybe I should read about FDL first :)
May 11, 2007
negerns wrote:

>> Is it written in English ?
> Yes it is.

You said "in my country", so just thought I would make sure...

>> If you are willing to release the text of your book under the FDL
>> (GNU Free Documentation License), you can post it to either Wiki ?
> I used OpenOffice to create it and it is still in the very early stages. The book is dependent on files (.d snippets converted to HTML) that I reference inside.

Sounds good, but the Wiki format might be more suitable for
community editing (if you are interested in that, of course)

> Maybe I should read about FDL first :)

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html

--anders
May 11, 2007
Denton Cockburn wrote:
> Anyone planning a 'proper' book about D?
> I'd nominate someone like Andrei, he's got the experience with this stuff.


Perhaps a community effort to write a D book, preferably one that they would eventually try to print.  It could be made up from the best D articles on the web and then throughly reviewed until all the pieces fitted together.

-Joel

PS
I won't say its a D book since it uses D but is not about the language however you can get a hard copy of my thesis from my university, or a softcopy from here: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060417/anderson_01.shtml

May 11, 2007
> Perhaps a community effort to write a D book, preferably one that they would eventually try to print.  It could be made up from the best D articles on the web and then throughly reviewed until all the pieces fitted together.
> 
> -Joel

I would propose that 3 different texts are essential to making a language gerenally accessable.

1. As a first language
Most C books assume you know nothing, which makes it a good first language for people. I believe D is a great first language (if not because it's easier than C, than at least because it's fun) Having a book that assumes no programming knowledge makes it much more likley that someone will start with D instead of ending up with it (as most of us have)

2. Coming from a C-like language
Most of us have learned D as a second, third, or nth language, and it's the simularity to C that made D easy to pick up for us. Although many of us also knew other languages like Java or variations of C like C++ or Objective C, it's pretty safe to say that a book that assumed knowledge of C would have been just as easy to use. A book like this could/should also be very useful for porting existing C code to D.

3. Reference for existing users
As you learn the language, there are a few things that you will forget from time to time, or perhaps never quite picked up completely. A book like this should be as simple and to the point as possible, but have enough information to serve it's purpose. I imagine the contents of this type of book would greatly expand if phobos or tango were included, but they both have their own online manuals, and need for their own books.

It looks like we have some authors out there who are willing and able, but they will need to work together under some sort of organization or leadership if they are going to make some wiki books that are worthy of print.

-Trevor
May 11, 2007
janderson wrote:
> I won't say its a D book since it uses D but is not about the language however you can get a hard copy of my thesis from my university, or a softcopy from here: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060417/anderson_01.shtml

Thanks for the link Joel.  I'll dig into this soon.

At first glance, I find it a bit hard to read.. sans serif, poor or no kerning.  Was this your University's thesis format?

Anyway, glad to see some other game related folks interested in D.

--Steve
May 11, 2007
janderson schrieb:
 > Perhaps a community effort to write a D book, preferably one that they
> would eventually try to print.  

concerning the printing issue see http://www.lulu.com/
(isn't the name great?)

david
May 12, 2007
Stephen Waits wrote:
> janderson wrote:
>> I won't say its a D book since it uses D but is not about the language however you can get a hard copy of my thesis from my university, or a softcopy from here: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060417/anderson_01.shtml
> 
> Thanks for the link Joel.  I'll dig into this soon.
> 
> At first glance, I find it a bit hard to read.. sans serif, poor or no kerning.  Was this your University's thesis format?

To be honest, I can't remember.  I imagine it was the default format from word.  It's probably one of those preference things.  I still have an open office version if you want to reformat it yourself.

> 
> Anyway, glad to see some other game related folks interested in D.
> 
> --Steve
1 2
Next ›   Last »