What is the fastest way for me to learn D? I think what I want is a syntax reference manual and a good tutorial to learn how to find and use libs.

On Tue, 15 Oct 2013 20:13:45 +0200, ProgrammingGhost wrote:

> What is the fastest way for me to learn D? I think what I want is a syntax reference manual and a good tutorial to learn how to find and use libs.

I learned D by doing two things.

1) Downloading the bundled DMD in a ZIP file.

2) Reading the language reference at http://www.dlang.org (back then it was on DigitalMars website...)

That is all you really need.

Now I would suggest reading the D Wiki as well. ;)

On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:13:46 UTC, ProgrammingGhost wrote:
> What is the fastest way for me to learn D? I think what I want is a syntax reference manual and a good tutorial to learn how to find and use libs.


The best way to learn D is to start by reading the API and code examples in the online Phobos documentation :o)   (Inside joke for Johnathan Davis, I wouldn't actually recommend that).

Actually, you might start with Ali's book.

http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html

One you start that order a copy of Andrei's book:

http://erdani.com/index.php/books/tdpl/

which will hopefully arrive in the mail about the time you are done with Ali's book.

The is also an under construction tutorial:

http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/d-tut-0.1/index.html

which looks promising, but is far from complete.

Finally, D.learn is a great place to ask newbie questions.  Very helpful.

http://forum.dlang.org/group/digitalmars.D.learn

Best of luck.

On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:25:48 UTC, Dejan Lekic wrote:
> 2) Reading the language reference at http://www.dlang.org (back then it
> was on DigitalMars website...)

If you want a more accurate version of the language grammar, take a look at this:

https://github.com/Hackerpilot/DGrammar/blob/master/D.g4

(And if you find any errors, please create a pull request)

On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:25:48 UTC, Dejan Lekic wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Oct 2013 20:13:45 +0200, ProgrammingGhost wrote:
>
>> What is the fastest way for me to learn D? I think what I want is a
>> syntax reference manual and a good tutorial to learn how to find and use
>> libs.
>
> I learned D by doing two things.
>
> 1) Downloading the bundled DMD in a ZIP file.
>
> 2) Reading the language reference at http://www.dlang.org (back then it
> was on DigitalMars website...)
>
> That is all you really need.
>
> Now I would suggest reading the D Wiki as well. ;)

You really learned D from the online language reference?  Thats hard core!  You must be much smarter than me.

I suggested reading the Phobos docs online, but I was just joking.

> 
> You really learned D from the online language reference?  Thats hard core!  You must be much smarter than me.
> 
> I suggested reading the Phobos docs online, but I was just joking.

Well, that was ~10 years ago... Language reference is still pretty much okay, with more examples, plus we also got nice dlang.org website meanwhile. :)

DPaste should also be a good resource for new D programmers. But hey, it is all on D Wiki!!

On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:32:59 UTC, Craig Dillabaugh wrote:
> On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:25:48 UTC, Dejan Lekic wrote:
>> On Tue, 15 Oct 2013 20:13:45 +0200, ProgrammingGhost wrote:
>>
>>> What is the fastest way for me to learn D? I think what I want is a
>>> syntax reference manual and a good tutorial to learn how to find and use
>>> libs.
>>
>> I learned D by doing two things.
>>
>> 1) Downloading the bundled DMD in a ZIP file.
>>
>> 2) Reading the language reference at http://www.dlang.org (back then it
>> was on DigitalMars website...)
>>
>> That is all you really need.
>>
>> Now I would suggest reading the D Wiki as well. ;)
>
> You really learned D from the online language reference?  Thats hard core!  You must be much smarter than me.
>
> I suggested reading the Phobos docs online, but I was just joking.

I did too. I don't see it as particularly hard/only-for-smart-people, I just built simple programs and slowly looked up what I needed as I went along. A lot of help from people here and on IRC helped as well of course.

On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:32:59 UTC, Craig Dillabaugh wrote:
> You really learned D from the online language reference?  Thats hard core!  You must be much smarter than me.

You know, good old times when it was the only information available about D2, before even TDPL came out.. We literally had no choice! ;)

On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:36:19 UTC, John Colvin wrote:
> On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:32:59 UTC, Craig Dillabaugh wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:25:48 UTC, Dejan Lekic wrote:
>>> On Tue, 15 Oct 2013 20:13:45 +0200, ProgrammingGhost wrote:
>>>
>>>> What is the fastest way for me to learn D? I think what I want is a
>>>> syntax reference manual and a good tutorial to learn how to find and use
>>>> libs.
>>>
>>> I learned D by doing two things.
>>>
>>> 1) Downloading the bundled DMD in a ZIP file.
>>>
>>> 2) Reading the language reference at http://www.dlang.org (back then it
>>> was on DigitalMars website...)
>>>
>>> That is all you really need.
>>>
>>> Now I would suggest reading the D Wiki as well. ;)
>>
>> You really learned D from the online language reference?  Thats hard core!  You must be much smarter than me.
>>
>> I suggested reading the Phobos docs online, but I was just joking.
>
> I did too. I don't see it as particularly hard/only-for-smart-people, I just built simple programs and slowly looked up what I needed as I went along. A lot of help from people here and on IRC helped as well of course.

There is a lot of good information in the language reference, but I just remember it didn't feel very welcoming to someone new to the language. It does show how to use the different parts, but it is sort of hard to figure out what a proper D progam should look like from all that.  But as Dicebot pointed out, it wasn't all that long ago that there were not many other options.

On Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 18:29:21 UTC, Craig Dillabaugh wrote:
>
> The is also an under construction tutorial:
>
> http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/d-tut-0.1/index.html
>
> which looks promising, but is far from complete.
>
As an addendum, this one is a neat example of how things can come together in real code:
http://wiki.dlang.org/Component_programming_with_ranges

Shows off ranges and some other nifty features.

-Wyatt