I want to use DMD as a library to start building a reliable LSP.

Problem is, there’s basically zero documentation on how to even get started with that.

Does anyone have pointers, examples, or any kind of reference that could help?

It’s insane how bad editor support is. Coming from Go, where the core team actually develops and maintains their own LSP and tools, it’s no wonder D never gained more traction.

And yes, I have tried ServeD, it's not reliable..

On Thursday, 28 August 2025 at 14:34:00 UTC, xoxo wrote:

D has many features that hard to implement in LSP
templates, UFCS are just examples

You can check this implementation for example: https://github.com/rikkimax/dls

On Thursday, 28 August 2025 at 14:58:22 UTC, Serg Gini wrote:

Sorry I phrased my question poorly, I know how to implement a LSP server, I meant how to use DMD's parser as a library

From a HN thread:

On Thursday, 28 August 2025 at 14:34:00 UTC, xoxo wrote:

auto a = b.this
           that
           f
           connect
           etc

It's indeed a way to discover a library.

On Thursday, 28 August 2025 at 14:34:00 UTC, xoxo wrote:

I agree that the documentation for it is bad. I tested Github Copilot on it and it seemed to understand the code. Maybe that is a way to get started.

On Thursday, 28 August 2025 at 14:34:00 UTC, xoxo wrote:

A presentation from dconf 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKT3MYpRgYA

Slides are linked from there. And Razvan works for DLF, he can probably help explain things if you ask here or other places.

I have seen this statement quite a bit. We need to work on it.

I think that a lot of D users (including myself) rely on very old-fashioned workflows for these kinds of things, so we don't feel that pain. Not saying this is an excuse, it just might explain why focus isn't high on this problem.

There is also work on a tree-sitter based LSP, which I believe is used in zed, see here: https://github.com/gdamore/tree-sitter-d

-Steve

On Friday, 29 August 2025 at 02:10:59 UTC, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:

There's also DCD: https://github.com/dlang-community/DCD

It works well for me.

On Thursday, 28 August 2025 at 16:07:40 UTC, xoxo wrote:

I was maintaining a D Language Server up until some 4-5 years ago, and one of the last things I had tried out before abandoning it was using DMD as a library. It seemed promising at first, but it felt like DMD had definitely not been thought for use as a library back then. Maybe there has been an effort to make it so in the last couple years?

The state of editor support in D has always been a bit depressing; but it's nice to see some people still trying to improve it!

On Thursday, 28 August 2025 at 14:34:00 UTC, xoxo wrote:

In modern software development practices, strong and reliable editor support (such as code completion, error detection, and refactoring through IDEs or editors) plays a critical role. While languages like Go have built a strong ecosystem thanks to LSP tools developed directly by their language teams, D still lags behind in this area.

SDB@79

On Thursday, 28 August 2025 at 14:34:00 UTC, xoxo wrote:

my wish list for an editor:

1. typewriter mode
2. color coding off keyword(what syntax highlighter can understand my code?)
3. random dark theme setting
4. memes noises and animations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teJjJh2s7Po