I'm mainly a scripting language, .NET, and SQL programmer. I've been looking for a good programming language for Linux/BSD other than Python. I've surveyed the options and D appears to be a sane modern choice for me. (Thanks Ali Çehreli and others!)

The only hitch is that many of the projects and libraries I'm interested in using or maybe porting are mainly C based. (My overall C-fu is weak...) Should I review a good C book or tutorial before jumping in to fully learning D? Or should I just eschew any C exposure until I master D?

(As a side note, many of the C libraries I'm interested in seem to be confusing messes of header files and "organic" code. But who am I to judge?)

On Saturday, 15 October 2016 at 01:46:52 UTC, Chris Nelson wrote:
> I'm mainly a scripting language, .NET, and SQL programmer. I've been looking for a good programming language for Linux/BSD other than Python. I've surveyed the options and D appears to be a sane modern choice for me. (Thanks Ali Çehreli and others!)
>
> The only hitch is that many of the projects and libraries I'm interested in using or maybe porting are mainly C based. (My overall C-fu is weak...) Should I review a good C book or tutorial before jumping in to fully learning D? Or should I just eschew any C exposure until I master D?
>
> (As a side note, many of the C libraries I'm interested in seem to be confusing messes of header files and "organic" code. But who am I to judge?)

Jump in and learn C as you go. C can be a beast at times, particularly if it involves the C preprocessor, and delaying learning D won't help.

Have you seen
https://github.com/jacob-carlborg/dstep

On Saturday, 15 October 2016 at 01:46:52 UTC, Chris Nelson wrote:
> I'm mainly a scripting language, .NET, and SQL programmer. I've been looking for a good programming language for Linux/BSD other than Python. I've surveyed the options and D appears to be a sane modern choice for me. (Thanks Ali Çehreli and others!)
>
> The only hitch is that many of the projects and libraries I'm interested in using or maybe porting are mainly C based. (My overall C-fu is weak...) Should I review a good C book or tutorial before jumping in to fully learning D? Or should I just eschew any C exposure until I master D?
>
> (As a side note, many of the C libraries I'm interested in seem to be confusing messes of header files and "organic" code. But who am I to judge?)

I came from a python/java background when I started to learn D. I had a programming class many-many years ago in C, and I only knew it well enough to do small programs. I started learning D almost 2 years ago, and then started in on C++ after that.

I think D is by far the easiest compiled language to "learn". You can get into to it pretty easy (easier than C++) and write something useful pretty quick. Then there's always more to learn.

On Saturday, 15 October 2016 at 01:46:52 UTC, Chris Nelson wrote:
> I'm mainly a scripting language, .NET, and SQL programmer. I've been looking for a good programming language for Linux/BSD other than Python. I've surveyed the options and D appears to be a sane modern choice for me. (Thanks Ali Çehreli and others!)
>
> The only hitch is that many of the projects and libraries I'm interested in using or maybe porting are mainly C based. (My overall C-fu is weak...) Should I review a good C book or tutorial before jumping in to fully learning D? Or should I just eschew any C exposure until I master D?
>
> (As a side note, many of the C libraries I'm interested in seem to be confusing messes of header files and "organic" code. But who am I to judge?)

It is possible to write in a C style in D and they are similar enough (when writing like C) that learning D should cover you for most of the C (sans macros), but obviously D can do a whole lot more.
D has the philosophy that it should work the same way as C or not compile at all.

As always Ali's book is excellent (and free!), so start with that.

There are many bindings for C libraries available for D, see code.dlang.org or try dstep as mentioned above.

On Saturday, 15 October 2016 at 01:46:52 UTC, Chris Nelson wrote:
> I'm mainly a scripting language, .NET, and SQL programmer. I've been looking for a good programming language for Linux/BSD other than Python. I've surveyed the options and D appears to be a sane modern choice for me. (Thanks Ali Çehreli and others!)
>
> The only hitch is that many of the projects and libraries I'm interested in using or maybe porting are mainly C based. (My overall C-fu is weak...) Should I review a good C book or tutorial before jumping in to fully learning D? Or should I just eschew any C exposure until I master D?
>
> (As a side note, many of the C libraries I'm interested in seem to be confusing messes of header files and "organic" code. But who am I to judge?)

I would jump right into D and then veer off into C on a need to know basis. This link might be of interest:

https://dlang.org/ctod.html

Also, are you aware of the libraries at the DUB registry?

And finally, Chapter 9 of Mike Parker's "Learning D" has lots of info on libraries.