I want to program complex sound (music composition and sound editing) and 3d graphics applications.  D is described as a systems programming language but it seems to handle higher level programming.  Can someone describe the real world difference between systems and application programming, and what kinds of applications should be programmed in a systems language.  Thanks!
-John

John wrote:
> I want to program complex sound (music composition and sound editing)
> and 3d graphics applications.  D is described as a systems
> programming language but it seems to handle higher level programming.
> Can someone describe the real world difference between systems and
> application programming, and what kinds of applications should be
> programmed in a systems language.  Thanks! -John

To me, "systems programming lanugage" seems to just be a fancy way of saying "has raw access to pointers".

Other than that the concerns of an "application programming" language and a "systems programming language" are pretty much the same.

--bb

John wrote:
> I want to program complex sound (music composition and sound editing)
> and 3d graphics applications.  D is described as a systems programming
> language but it seems to handle higher level programming.  Can someone
> describe the real world difference between systems and application
> programming, and what kinds of applications should be programmed in a
> systems language.  Thanks! -John

This seems to call for a philosphical essay - there's a lot to argue
about here, and you'll probably find n different answers from n people.
IMHO the hallmarks of a systems programming language are that it handles
bare metal programming and real pointers and pointer arithmetic.
Also, compilation to machine code should probably be counted in.
Mark that the presence of those features does /not/ make a language a
worse "application programming" language.
Those just call for a different set of features which - I am confident
you will find - D provides as well, as far as the language is concerned.
Only if you plan do write an application that relies heavily on the
availability of foreign libraries, you may want to check if everything
you need is either available (the places to look are mostly Phobos or
Tango) or easily interfaced to (C libraries).

Regards, Frank