Hi,

I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.

I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED and AWK years ago.

Is D a good choice for me? I want to develop for Linux (one key reason for
wanting to learn D) and
Windows platforms?

Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to attract new
developers that this
would be essential)? Any training materials or example code?

Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide but
translate everything to D
examples as I go?

Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project framework
with...I don't think this
will work with D -- can anyone comment if this is true and also point out what
would be a good
alternative.

regards,

Glen

gbojsza@mac.com wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.
> 

You should have a look at dsource.org. There are some nice tutorials for D.

Stephan

gbojsza@mac.com wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.
> 
> I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED and AWK
> years ago.
> 
> Is D a good choice for me? I want to develop for Linux (one key reason for
> wanting to learn D) and Windows platforms?
> 
> Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to attract new
> developers that this would be essential)? Any training materials or example code?

Some material is available:

http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?D__Tutorial
http://www.dsource.org/tutorials/

"Getting Started" threads on dsource:
http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=225
http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=190

> 
> Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide but
> translate everything to D examples as I go?

I've never read Thinking in C++. There are some parallels between C++ and D, but there's a different underlying philosophy in D. I'm sure reading about C++ would help you understand D.

> 
> Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project framework
> with...I don't think this will work with D -- can anyone comment if this is true and also point out what
> would be a good alternative.

I'm not familiar with TogetherSoft. I tried to google a definition, but I still couldn't figure out what it is.

Is it a library or an IDE?

D is link-compatible with C, but C++ libraries can't really be used in D (unless some sort of wrapper is generated, which isn't an easy task).

An IDE might be coerced into recognizing keywords and running the DMD compiler, but nothing exciting.

> 
> regards,
> 
> Glen

-- 
Justin (a/k/a jcc7)
http://jcc_7.tripod.com/d/

J C Calvarese wrote:

> gbojsza@mac.com wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.
>>
>> I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED and AWK
>> years ago.
>>
>> Is D a good choice for me? I want to develop for Linux (one key reason for
>> wanting to learn D) and Windows platforms?
>>
>> Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to attract new
>> developers that this would be essential)? Any training materials or example code?
>
>
> Some material is available:
>
> http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?D__Tutorial
> http://www.dsource.org/tutorials/
>
> "Getting Started" threads on dsource:
> http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=225
> http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=190
>
>>
>> Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide but
>> translate everything to D examples as I go?
>
>
> I've never read Thinking in C++. There are some parallels between C++ and D, but there's a different underlying philosophy in D. I'm sure reading about C++ would help you understand D.
>
>>
>> Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project framework
>> with...I don't think this will work with D -- can anyone comment if this is true and also point out what
>> would be a good alternative.
>
>
> I'm not familiar with TogetherSoft. I tried to google a definition, but I still couldn't figure out what it is.
>
> Is it a library or an IDE?
>
> D is link-compatible with C, but C++ libraries can't really be used in D (unless some sort of wrapper is generated, which isn't an easy task).
>
Just a thought, I did a seach for C++ -> C converters and found that  AT&T CFront and Comeau C++ may be (I haven't checked) able to convert C++ source into C code.  There might be other ones that are free, although I've no idea how good the output is.

> An IDE might be coerced into recognizing keywords and running the DMD compiler, but nothing exciting.
>
>>
>> regards,
>>
>> Glen
>
>


-- 
-Anderson: http://badmama.com.au/~anderson/

<gbojsza@mac.com> wrote in message news:cdb7ou$1a8f$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> Hi,
>
> I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.

Good idea!

> I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED and AWK years ago.

Cool. I have no experience with either, and would love to learn something, Even a two-sentence overview of each would be very nice. Will you oblige?

> Is D a good choice for me?

Yes

> I want to develop for Linux (one key reason for
> wanting to learn D) and
> Windows platforms?
>
> Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to attract new
> developers that this
> would be essential)? Any training materials or example code?
>
> Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide but
> translate everything to D
> examples as I go?

Probably not. You'll want a copy of the new book on D.  .... Bah! It's not written yet. :(

Seriously, there are good examples people have put together - guys, help me out here with links - and this NG also welcomes questions at all levels.

> Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project framework
> with...I don't think this
> will work with D -- can anyone comment if this is true and also point out what
> would be a good
> alternative.

No eye deer.

Welcome. Hope you have fun, and learn a lot. :)

On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 12:58:06 +0000, gbojsza wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I am looking at learning C++ and came across Digital Mars and found D.
While D is truely a good language, it's not the most user friendly.  Even the D site says that it's not a good beginner language.  You may want to learn some C first, then graduate to D.

> 
> I have no programming experience other than some scripting with SED and AWK years ago.
> 
> Is D a good choice for me? I want to develop for Linux (one key reason
> for wanting to learn D) and
> Windows platforms?

Although it frequently feels like I'm one of the few D developers on Linux, there is a version of DMD for Linux (which I've yet to have a problem with), and most of the libraries work on linux.

> 
> Has anyone put together a beginners guide to D (I would think to attract
> new developers that this
> would be essential)? Any training materials or example code?
> 
> Would it be possible to use the "Thinking in C++" by Eckel as a guide
> but translate everything to D
> examples as I go?
> 
> Friends of mine use Borland's TogetherSoft to build their project
> framework with...I don't think this
> will work with D -- can anyone comment if this is true and also point
> out what would be a good
> alternative.

If it's an IDE you want, there are several.  There's the an Eclipse plugin called eclipseD (this one's my project, and is hosted on dsource.org) as well as one called LEDS.  There's also one called DIDE, however it only runs on Windows, thus I have no experience with it.
> 
> regards,
> 
> Glen