Glad to announce D 2.097.0, ♥ to the 54 contributors.

This release comes with a new std.sumtype packcage, support for while (auto n = expression), an overhauled formatting package, and many more changes.

http://dlang.org/download.html
http://dlang.org/changelog/2.097.0.html

-Martin

On Saturday, 5 June 2021 at 10:19:47 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:

Nice release.

https://dlang.org/changelog/2.097.0.html#pragma-mangle-aggregate

Does this means we will get more STL goodies soon?

On Saturday, 5 June 2021 at 10:19:47 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:

Nullable!int ni = 5.nullable;
int i = ni;

test.d(5): Error: cannot implicitly convert expression `ni` of type `Nullable!int` to `int`

F***ing finally.

On Saturday, 5 June 2021 at 10:19:47 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:

Windows installer is broken.

I have install target path excluded from Windows Defender anti virus checks, yet after the installation it only contains .bat files, uninstaller.exe, dmd2/windows/lib64 and lib32mscoff, but no bin and sources.

On Saturday, 5 June 2021 at 13:00:05 UTC, evilrat wrote:

Weird but it seems to be an issue with your setup. The installer worked perfectly fine on my Win10 installation.

On Saturday, 5 June 2021 at 13:00:05 UTC, evilrat wrote:

I am having issues as well, but I don't think the installer is at fault: I see the C:\D\dmd2 directory get filled as the installer progresses, then files just disappear. It doesn't seem to be consistent though. After failure I tried with dmd-2.096.1.exe and the same thing happened, whereas it had installed fine before. I tried dmd-2.097.0.exe and this time the whole directory got wiped. I tried again and it installed fine.

Windows 10 Pro N version 20H2 build 19042.985.

I suspect MS cloud security scan.

-- Bastiaan.

On Monday, 7 June 2021 at 08:51:52 UTC, Bastiaan Veelo wrote:

Maybe we could recruit someone to replace the dated NSIS installer with a native msi installer.
https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15375
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software#Windows

Don't have much of a clue about Windows nowadays, maybe there are more suitable alternatives.

On Friday, 18 June 2021 at 06:14:03 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:

What would be the most suitable alternative in my eyes is for dub, based on tool chain requirements specified in dub.json, to install and select compilers. Cross platform and cross vendor. I know there are compiler version managers, but I think since dub can check versions of packages and install packages, and can check compiler versions, it is only natural that it should also be able to install compilers.

Above all, it would be just so convenient. This way a compiler upgrade becomes part of your commit history. You can test (beta) compiler releases in a separate branch, resolve deprecations comfortably, have your CI run all tests, all without interfering with main development. You push the change and all team members upgrade their compilers automatically without even noticing it, and certainly without surprises. And any number of years in the future, when you pick up an old project that has been dormant, it still compiles flawlessly because dub downgrades the compiler automatically.

Come to think of it, maybe there should be an additional package category that provides build tools that can be run by dub without dub run, such as dfmt, dpp, pegged, and compilers and linters.

— Bastiaan.

On Friday, 18 June 2021 at 06:14:03 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:

Speaking with my Windwos dev hat on, the suitable alternative would be to use MSIX package files, the replacement for MSI files, that date back to Windows 2000.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/packaging-tool/tool-overview

In what concerns typical Windows development workflows, its use is quite simple for basic use cases, namely add a MSIX project to solution, configure the manifest file and add as dependencies the .NET and C++ projects whose binaries are going to be part of MSIX.

With something like D I expect a bit more convoluted process.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/desktop/desktop-to-uwp-third-party-installer

On Friday, 18 June 2021 at 06:14:03 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:

windows is my main development platform and personally i have no need for the installer at all- i just grab the 7z.

however i would use the chocolatey package exclusively instead if it would be maintained more timely.

https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/dmd

i haven't used the new windows package manager by microsoft yet.

https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli