I've been working on a game lately (frontier/elite type) and hope I can port the most important class code into D from C++ (btw - that would give D some good matrix/vector/quaternion and Micro;-)ODE classes), but of course there's some DirectInput, DirectSound and OpenGL also. AFAIK D can't interface with C++, but can with C. I have no idea about C, but maybe I can convert Direct/OGL parts to it and link it into D. The question is: do I have to make any BIG changes to Visual Studio .NET to do this trick? I guess it should be stupid enough to think D source is C++, and give me all those nice class completion features. But what about the linker?

Cheers,
QUS

"QUS" <qus@go2.pl> wrote in message news:bgt0a0$2m9r$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> I've been working on a game lately (frontier/elite type) and hope I can
port
> the most important class code into D from C++ (btw - that would give D
some
> good matrix/vector/quaternion and Micro;-)ODE classes), but of course there's some DirectInput, DirectSound and OpenGL also. AFAIK D can't interface with C++, but can with C. I have no idea about C, but maybe I
can
> convert Direct/OGL parts to it and link it into D. The question is: do I have to make any BIG changes to Visual Studio .NET to do this trick? I
guess
> it should be stupid enough to think D source is C++, and give me all those nice class completion features. But what about the linker?

The D linker, Optlink, uses Microsoft OMF format. The VC linker uses Microsoft COFF format. You can convert the latter to the former using COFF2OMF.

"QUS" <qus@go2.pl> wrote in news:bgt0a0$2m9r$1@digitaldaemon.com:

> convert Direct/OGL parts to it and link it into D. The question is: do I have to make any BIG changes to Visual Studio .NET to do this trick? I guess it should be stupid enough to think D source is C++, and give me all those nice class completion features. But what about the linker?

I don't know about Visual Studio .NET, but I got my trusty Visual Studio
6.0 to treat D files as C++ files. VS 6.0 is quite rigid about proper C++
syntax (it even refuses some correct C++ code), so it doesn't work well with
most D code. With quite some tweaking of VS 6.0 and a C++-compatible D-coding
style, I get reasonable code completion results and a modest class view.

But since .NET is about using multiple languages, I expect VS .NET to be better suitable for use with new unsupported languages than VS 6.0.

You can easily interface to COM in D.  If you can port the DirectX headers to D (it's mostly trivial-- I've done it for Direct3D 8 already) you can talk to DirectX directly from D.

If all the people on this NG pooled their DirectX headers together we'd probably have a mostly complete conversion.

I believe someone has already ported OpenGL interface to D.  It's straight C, so it's easier.

You won't be able to use Visual Studio for much more than an editor or project manager, I'm afraid.  You have to use a makefile project or give each D file custom build steps.  Oh, and the debugger works fairly well for D code, but it won't unmangle D symbol names.

Sean

"QUS" <qus@go2.pl> wrote in message news:bgt0a0$2m9r$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> I've been working on a game lately (frontier/elite type) and hope I can
port
> the most important class code into D from C++ (btw - that would give D
some
> good matrix/vector/quaternion and Micro;-)ODE classes), but of course there's some DirectInput, DirectSound and OpenGL also. AFAIK D can't interface with C++, but can with C. I have no idea about C, but maybe I
can
> convert Direct/OGL parts to it and link it into D. The question is: do I have to make any BIG changes to Visual Studio .NET to do this trick? I
guess
> it should be stupid enough to think D source is C++, and give me all those nice class completion features. But what about the linker?
>
> Cheers,
> QUS

> You can easily interface to COM in D.  If you can port the DirectX headers to D (it's mostly trivial-- I've done it for Direct3D 8 already) you can talk to DirectX directly from D.

Ha! So where's the link?! :-)

>
> If all the people on this NG pooled their DirectX headers together we'd probably have a mostly complete conversion.
>

People! Send your links! :-)

> I believe someone has already ported OpenGL interface to D.  It's straight C, so it's easier.
>
> You won't be able to use Visual Studio for much more than an editor or project manager, I'm afraid.  You have to use a makefile project or give each D file custom build steps.  Oh, and the debugger works fairly well
for
> D code, but it won't unmangle D symbol names.
>

Actually, I found microsoft VS addon development pack, that was used for creating Visual Studio plugins for Eiffel, Python and Perl. You can see the screenshots and info on MS pages:

http://www.vsippartners.com/search.aspx?SearchText=&CompName=&ProdName=&PT=, 12,

If I have some time, and if it is not very difficult I may even try to write a plugin for D (in D, of course... :-)

Well, they did start releasing the $30000 development kit for free, recently.  ;)

Sean


===================

I've just saw on the xds newsgroups that VSIP SDK was released today for free (it used to cost a lot - about $30k)

http://www.vsipdev.com

VSIP SDK allows you to customize your Visual Studio .NET environment and
integrate deeply into Visual Studio .NET. Increase
productivity, deliver solutions faster, and improve overall product quality.
VSIP also contains the new Help system VSHIK, which the
MSDN uses.

VSIP requires VS .NET 2003 (at least VSHIK setup
program reported so).


===================

"Farmer" <itsFarmer.@freenet.de> wrote in message news:Xns93D0F417B7B0FitsFarmer@63.105.9.61...
> But since .NET is about using multiple languages, I expect VS .NET to be better suitable for use with new unsupported languages than VS 6.0.

"QUS" <qus@go2.pl> wrote in message news:bgvrpf$2a6u$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> > You can easily interface to COM in D.  If you can port the DirectX
headers
> > to D (it's mostly trivial-- I've done it for Direct3D 8 already) you can talk to DirectX directly from D.
>
> Ha! So where's the link?! :-)

What, you mean I have to bother setting up my webpage again?  ;)   I figured I'd email you a .zip.

> Actually, I found microsoft VS addon development pack, that was used for creating Visual Studio plugins for Eiffel, Python and Perl. You can see
the
> screenshots and info on MS pages:
>
>
http://www.vsippartners.com/search.aspx?SearchText=&CompName=&ProdName=&PT=,
> 12,
>
> If I have some time, and if it is not very difficult I may even try to
write
> a plugin for D (in D, of course... :-)

Wow, we almost tied posting that info.  ;)  16 minutes apart

Sean

> VSIP requires VS .NET 2003 (at least VSHIK setup
> program reported so).
>
Aw! 3,32 GB to download... ;-)

Try that at 300 baud sometime!! ;)


"QUS" <qus@go2.pl> wrote in message news:bgvvv5$2dqo$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> Aw! 3,32 GB to download... ;-)

"Sean L. Palmer" <palmer.sean@verizon.net> wrote in message news:bgvsq1$2b66$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> "QUS" <qus@go2.pl> wrote in message
news:bgvrpf$2a6u$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> > > You can easily interface to COM in D.  If you can port the DirectX
> headers
> > > to D (it's mostly trivial-- I've done it for Direct3D 8 already) you
can
> > > talk to DirectX directly from D.
> >
> > Ha! So where's the link?! :-)
>
> What, you mean I have to bother setting up my webpage again?  ;)   I
figured
> I'd email you a .zip.

Yes, please put it on a web page!