Hello all,

I just started documenting my trip down the D learning curve.  For anyone that's interested or if your a newbie and don't want to repeat my mistakes take a look at :

http://www.lechak.info/wiki/index.php?title=D_Language

If you have anything to add or can clarify anything please don't hesitate to add to the wiki.

Thanks,
Erik Lechak

Erik Lechak wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I just started documenting my trip down the D learning curve.  For anyone that's interested or if your a newbie and don't want to repeat my mistakes take a look at :
> 
> http://www.lechak.info/wiki/index.php?title=D_Language
> 
> If you have anything to add or can clarify anything please don't hesitate to add to the wiki.

Thanks for doing this.

Can you please rename the page to "D programming language" rather than "D language" ? That makes it more google-friendly.

Erik Lechak wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> I just started documenting my trip down the D learning curve.  For anyone that's interested or if your a newbie and don't want to repeat my mistakes take a look at :
> 
> http://www.lechak.info/wiki/index.php?title=D_Language
> 
> If you have anything to add or can clarify anything please don't hesitate to add to the wiki.
> 
> Thanks,
> Erik Lechak

Good idea, I'll add some things.

To answer one of your questions...
  gdmd has the same command-line usage as dmd.  This allows tools to be written in one way but use either dmd or gcc as their compiler.  For example, dmd and gdmd use -release while gdc uses -frelease.

Also, I'm sure the newsgroup would be interested in hearing why you couldn't get dsss to work reliably.  The configs are usually very simple.  What problems did you hit?  Setting the initial config?  Writing the config file in your source directory? Lack of module declarations?

Erik Lechak Wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> I just started documenting my trip down the D learning curve.  For anyone that's interested or if your a newbie and don't want to repeat my mistakes take a look at :
> 
> http://www.lechak.info/wiki/index.php?title=D_Language
> 
> If you have anything to add or can clarify anything please don't hesitate to add to the wiki.
> 
> Thanks,
> Erik Lechak

"Erik Lechak" <prochak@netzero.net> wrote in message news:g2tf85$ig2$1@digitalmars.com...
> Hello all,
>
> I just started documenting my trip down the D learning curve.  For anyone that's interested or if your a newbie and don't want to repeat my mistakes take a look at :
>
> http://www.lechak.info/wiki/index.php?title=D_Language
>
> If you have anything to add or can clarify anything please don't hesitate to add to the wiki.
>
> Thanks,
> Erik Lechak

So you know, the difference between Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 is not what version of GDC you're using.  It's that there are currently two versions of D itself: D1, which came out at the beginning of 2007 and which is the only version GDC (whatever version it is) supports.  And D2, which is currently in an alpha state, which only DMD supports (but there's DMD1 as well).

The Digital Mars pages are rather biased to D2 -- almost every link leads to the D2 documentation, so it's understandable that you ended up at the wrong Phobos docs.

Also, you might already be aware but the bindings project on dsource (http://www.dsource.org/projects/bindings) has many bindings to common C libraries.  Together with BCD and Derelict, which you mentioned, most common C libraries have already been bound, making the somewhat desperate-sounding situation you posit in your wiki a little less desperate ;)

(BCD also has a lot more bindings than the wiki page suggests.  See here http://www.dsource.org/projects/bcd/browser/trunk/bindings/bcd for a full list.)

Just as a heads-up, I use both dmd and gdc on a regular basis and I have found that as nice as gdc is, dmd is a lot more bug free. I usually try gdc first and if there is a bug then I compile with dmd.
Thought that might help a little at times.
JC

Erik Lechak wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I just started documenting my trip down the D learning curve.  For anyone that's interested or if your a newbie and don't want to repeat my mistakes take a look at :
> 
> http://www.lechak.info/wiki/index.php?title=D_Language
> 
> If you have anything to add or can clarify anything please don't hesitate to add to the wiki.
> 
> Thanks,
> Erik Lechak

Hello Jarrett,

> So you know, the difference between Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 is not what version of GDC you're using.  It's that there are currently two versions of D itself: D1, which came out at the beginning of 2007 and which is the only version GDC (whatever version it is) supports.  And D2, which is currently in an alpha state, which only DMD supports (but there's DMD1 as well).

I installed gdc-4.1.  I just assumed the Debian package name gdc-4.2 would contain the compiler for D2 and the Phobos2 library.  But now you have me wondering what is in the gdc-4.2 package.

I think from now on I'm not going to think of D as having a "standard library", until it has a standard library.

Thanks,
Erik Lechak

"Erik Lechak" <prochak@netzero.net> wrote in message news:g2un94$16u9$1@digitalmars.com...
> Hello Jarrett,
>
>> So you know, the difference between Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 is not what
>> version of GDC you're using.  It's that there are currently two versions
>> of
>> D itself: D1, which came out at the beginning of 2007 and which is the
>> only
>> version GDC (whatever version it is) supports.  And D2, which is
>> currently
>> in an alpha state, which only DMD supports (but there's DMD1 as well).
>
> I installed gdc-4.1.  I just assumed the Debian package name gdc-4.2 would contain the compiler for D2 and the Phobos2 library.  But now you have me wondering what is in the gdc-4.2 package.

It's GDC, linked against GCC 4.2.  And, shock of all shocks, gdc-4.1 is GDC linked against GCC 4.1 ;)

> I think from now on I'm not going to think of D as having a "standard library", until it has a standard library.

It *has* a standard library.  It's Phobos.  It just so happens that many D users use Tango instead ;)  Of course that begs the question: is a "standard library" that is used by a minority all that "standard"?

Hello Jarrett,

> "Erik Lechak" <prochak@netzero.net> wrote in message news:g2un94$16u9$1@digitalmars.com...
> > Hello Jarrett,
> >
> >> So you know, the difference between Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 is not what
> >> version of GDC you're using.  It's that there are currently two versions
> >> of
> >> D itself: D1, which came out at the beginning of 2007 and which is the
> >> only
> >> version GDC (whatever version it is) supports.  And D2, which is
> >> currently
> >> in an alpha state, which only DMD supports (but there's DMD1 as well).
> >
> > I installed gdc-4.1.  I just assumed the Debian package name gdc-4.2 would contain the compiler for D2 and the Phobos2 library.  But now you have me wondering what is in the gdc-4.2 package.
> 
> It's GDC, linked against GCC 4.2.  And, shock of all shocks, gdc-4.1 is GDC linked against GCC 4.1 ;)

Holy smokes!  That makes sense.  I read a little too much into the gdc version number rather than look at the obvious.  Newsgroups are a great resource ( for making yourself look stupid ).

So the moral of the story is:

Debian package gdc-4.1:
    Phobos version 1 standard library
    gdc    - a D (version 1) compiler
    gdmd - gdc with command line options mirroring dmd

Debian package gdc-4.2:
    Phobos version 1 standard library
    gdc    - a D (version 1) compiler
    gdmd - gdc with command line options mirroring dmd

Digital Mars package dmd.1.030.zip
    Phobos version 1 standard library
    dmd - a D (version 1 ) compiler (Windows and Linux)

Digital Mars package dmd.2.014.zip
    Phobos version 2 standard library
    dmd - a D (version 2 ) compiler (Windows and Linux)

Thanks again,
Erik Lechak

Reply to Erik,


> Holy smokes!  That makes sense.  I read a little too much into the gdc
> version number rather than look at the obvious.  Newsgroups are a
> great resource ( for making yourself look stupid ).
> 

looking stupid is a step on the way to not /being/ stupid.