I've been using DUB for several years and I've gotten it to work generally.  But I've been trying to troubleshoot a DUB issue for two days now and I've come to the conclusion, I don't really understand DUB and I'm tired of muddling through.  (Surely it hurts that I've never been exposed to a library or package manager in general)   Now, I've studied the on-line documentation and even walked through the code somewhat but I'm not making an headway.

Maybe a higher level approach is required. Is there some good beginner tutorial that I'm missing?   Ideally, like a gentle walk through, for both Windows and POSIX?

On Monday, 8 April 2019 at 19:54:28 UTC, WhatMeWorry wrote:
> Now, I've studied the on-line documentation and even walked through the code somewhat but I'm not making an headway.

Very relatable. My tips so far are:

- Look for projects in github with a similar structure to yours and look at their package files. Want to split up your library in sub-components? Look at:
https://github.com/d-gamedev-team/gfm/blob/master/dub.json
or:
https://github.com/AuburnSounds/Dplug/blob/master/dub.json

Want to build a game on Windows without console, with and icon and including Dll's?
https://github.com/gecko0307/dagon-demo/blob/master/dub.json

- If you think "okay, my D project is slightly unconventional, but I think I can make it work with dub using the right configuration / preBuildCommands / targetType none": It's an uphill battle, it won't work well (or at all).

- bookmark the package reference (https://dub.pm/package-format-json.html), you'll go back to it a lot.

> (Surely it hurts that I've never been exposed to a library or package manager in general)

It shouldn't be this hard to grasp.

> Is there some good beginner tutorial that I'm missing?

Nope. I considered writing one, but the prerequisite of that is that I understand dub myself. You'll have to do with:

https://dub.pm/getting_started.html
https://dub.pm/advanced_usage.html
https://github.com/dlang/dub/wiki/Cookbook

On Monday, 8 April 2019 at 19:54:28 UTC, WhatMeWorry wrote:
> I've been trying to troubleshoot a DUB issue for two days now and I've come to the conclusion, I don't really understand DUB and I'm tired of muddling through.

Just so you know who I am and what my experience is:

I've only been using D for a few months and so far, I've only dabbled in dub. I used to write a blog for PHP-GTK years ago, but now I'm writing one based on GtkD.

I was asked early on why I'm not using dub and the short answer is: I don't understand it (either).

Today I decided I'd get back to my notes on dub (which is leading to a blog post on how to use it) but during a search, I turned up a thread on here talking about how dub needs an overhaul... or at least, a tune-up.

But I carried on anyway and did a few more experiments with dub. However, I ran into a mystery while compiling one of my GtkD test files...

The first time I compiled it (using dub, of course) it compiled without complaint.

Then I decided to see if I could change the name of the central source file from app.d to main.d and added a line to the dub.sdl file like this:

mainSourceFile "main.d"

After attempting to compile and realizing this was wrong, I read the docs on .sdl files and found that all I had to do is change the name of the file. No mention of this change is needed in dub.sdl.

So, I tried that and got the warning:

warning LNK4255: library contain multiple objects of the same name; linking object as if no debug info

So, I changed it all back to the way it was, but still got the warning.

And this warning also comes up whenever I try to compile a single-file dub project (where the sdl args are framed in /+ +/ at the top of file.d).

At that point, with this mystery warning, the talk of dub needing an overhaul, and the number of new-ish D programmers who just don't understand dub, I decided to, once again, put my blog post on dub on the back burner.

All this to say: I feel your pain and hope you can find a way to keep on keeping on, with or without dub.

On Sunday, 14 April 2019 at 19:46:41 UTC, Ron Tarrant wrote:
> On Monday, 8 April 2019 at 19:54:28 UTC, WhatMeWorry wrote:
>> [...]
>
> Just so you know who I am and what my experience is:
>
> I've only been using D for a few months and so far, I've only dabbled in dub. I used to write a blog for PHP-GTK years ago, but now I'm writing one based on GtkD.
>
> I was asked early on why I'm not using dub and the short answer is: I don't understand it (either).
>
> Today I decided I'd get back to my notes on dub (which is leading to a blog post on how to use it) but during a search, I turned up a thread on here talking about how dub needs an overhaul... or at least, a tune-up.
>
> But I carried on anyway and did a few more experiments with dub. However, I ran into a mystery while compiling one of my GtkD test files...
>
> The first time I compiled it (using dub, of course) it compiled without complaint.
>
> Then I decided to see if I could change the name of the central source file from app.d to main.d and added a line to the dub.sdl file like this:
>
> mainSourceFile "main.d"
>
> After attempting to compile and realizing this was wrong, I read the docs on .sdl files and found that all I had to do is change the name of the file. No mention of this change is needed in dub.sdl.
>
> So, I tried that and got the warning:
>
> warning LNK4255: library contain multiple objects of the same name; linking object as if no debug info
>
> So, I changed it all back to the way it was, but still got the warning.
>
> And this warning also comes up whenever I try to compile a single-file dub project (where the sdl args are framed in /+ +/ at the top of file.d).
>
> At that point, with this mystery warning, the talk of dub needing an overhaul, and the number of new-ish D programmers who just don't understand dub, I decided to, once again, put my blog post on dub on the back burner.
>
> All this to say: I feel your pain and hope you can find a way to keep on keeping on, with or without dub.

You are totally right, it should be more intuitive how to use dub.

As far as I know if you do not specify in dub.json/dub.sdl what type of package you have (executable/library) dub make a guess. Is there an app.d it will default the targetType "executable", if not it will default the targetType "library".

To solve your specify the targetType explicitly in your dub.sdl file.

https://dub.pm/package-format-json.html#target-types

Kind regards
Andre

On Sun, 2019-04-14 at 20:51 +0000, Andre Pany via Digitalmars-d-learn
wrote:
[…]
> As far as I know if you do not specify in dub.json/dub.sdl what type of package you have (executable/library) dub make a guess. Is there an app.d it will default the targetType "executable", if not it will default the targetType "library".
[…]

I had understood that if source/main.d existed the project type would also be executable, the same as if source/app.d existed.

-- 
Russel.
===========================================
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk

On Sunday, 14 April 2019 at 20:51:10 UTC, Andre Pany wrote:
> On Sunday, 14 April 2019 at 19:46:41 UTC, Ron Tarrant wrote:
>> [...]
>
> You are totally right, it should be more intuitive how to use dub.
>
> As far as I know if you do not specify in dub.json/dub.sdl what type of package you have (executable/library) dub make a guess. Is there an app.d it will default the targetType "executable", if not it will default the targetType "library".
>
> To solve your specify the targetType explicitly in your dub.sdl file.
>
> https://dub.pm/package-format-json.html#target-types
>
> Kind regards
> Andre

The Zen of Python, rule number two: explicit is better than implicit ...

I guess that just killing all that educated dub guess will turn dub into a much easier tool to grasp.

- P

Le 15/04/2019 à 09:57, Paolo Invernizzi via Digitalmars-d-learn a écrit :
> I guess that just killing all that educated dub guess will turn dub into a much easier tool to grasp.

Probably. I had similar issues as well. Now I keep all as simple and explicit as possible. (And it works, at least in simple cases like my uses are as of now.)

-- 
diniz {la vita e estranj}

On Sunday, 14 April 2019 at 20:51:10 UTC, Andre Pany wrote:

> To solve your specify the targetType explicitly in your dub.sdl file.
>
> https://dub.pm/package-format-json.html#target-types
>
> Kind regards
> Andre

Thanks, Andre. Yeah, I did sort that out. My dilemma ATM is why I'm (seemingly randomly) getting linker warnings.