http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/d

Andrei

> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/d
>
> Andrei

Perhaps we can get it to 1000 answers? I'm looking through it now to see if I can find something I can answer.

On Tuesday, 6 August 2013 at 01:22:29 UTC, Andre Artus wrote:
>> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/d
>>
>> Andrei
>
> Perhaps we can get it to 1000 answers? I'm looking through it now to see if I can find something I can answer.

I think the lack of answers is due to most D aficionados posting questions on http://forum.dlang.org/group/digitalmars.D.learn instead of stackoverflow. The last time I asked a question I did it on both assuming I'd get better answers here than there. I was right and had to answer my own question on SO (with the answer I got on the forum from a helpful D programmer) so that others might benefit.

I'm not entirely sure this relative insularity is good for D (which is why I bothered to ask my question on SO to begin with).

Atila

On Tuesday, 6 August 2013 at 16:02:57 UTC, Atila Neves wrote:
> On Tuesday, 6 August 2013 at 01:22:29 UTC, Andre Artus wrote:
>>> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/d
>>>
>>> Andrei
>>
>> Perhaps we can get it to 1000 answers? I'm looking through it now to see if I can find something I can answer.
>
> I think the lack of answers is due to most D aficionados posting questions on http://forum.dlang.org/group/digitalmars.D.learn instead of stackoverflow. The last time I asked a question I did it on both assuming I'd get better answers here than there. I was right and had to answer my own question on SO (with the answer I got on the forum from a helpful D programmer) so that others might benefit.
>
> I'm not entirely sure this relative insularity is good for D (which is why I bothered to ask my question on SO to begin with).
>
> Atila

There is really nothing wrong about answering/asking questions here instead of the StackOverflow.

On Wednesday, 14 August 2013 at 19:52:13 UTC, Dejan Lekic wrote:
> On Tuesday, 6 August 2013 at 16:02:57 UTC, Atila Neves wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 6 August 2013 at 01:22:29 UTC, Andre Artus wrote:
>>>> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/d
>>>>
>>>> Andrei
>>>
>>> Perhaps we can get it to 1000 answers? I'm looking through it now to see if I can find something I can answer.
>>
>> I think the lack of answers is due to most D aficionados posting questions on http://forum.dlang.org/group/digitalmars.D.learn instead of stackoverflow. The last time I asked a question I did it on both assuming I'd get better answers here than there. I was right and had to answer my own question on SO (with the answer I got on the forum from a helpful D programmer) so that others might benefit.
>>
>> I'm not entirely sure this relative insularity is good for D (which is why I bothered to ask my question on SO to begin with).
>>
>> Atila
>
> There is really nothing wrong about answering/asking questions here instead of the StackOverflow.

As with many things it depends on what you want to achieve. Answering on SO is as much about establishing awareness as it is about answering the question. For a newcomer to D StackOverflow may be their first port of call, if questions go unanswered, or are answered after long delays, then the likelihood of the person persisting with D is diminished.

A relatively small number of people are attracted to tools and languages that don't have broad exposure. These people are marked by dogged determinism and a high tolerance for [mental] pain. Your average Joe or Jane is not like that, they have something they want to achieve and if they perceive the language/tools are working against them they will try something else.

It could be argued that D (broadly) isn't ready for Joe and Jane yet, but if it isn't yet, it must plan to be ready soon.

On Wednesday, 14 August 2013 at 20:56:33 UTC, Andre Artus wrote:
> if questions go unanswered, or are answered after long delays, then the likelihood of the person persisting with D is diminished.

Is this a big problem with D? I don't do stack overflow often, but I try to check in every few days to check the D tag, and I usually see answers there by the time I click it.

On Wednesday, 14 August 2013 at 21:03:37 UTC, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> On Wednesday, 14 August 2013 at 20:56:33 UTC, Andre Artus wrote:
>> if questions go unanswered, or are answered after long delays, then the likelihood of the person persisting with D is diminished.
>
> Is this a big problem with D? I don't do stack overflow often, but I try to check in every few days to check the D tag, and I usually see answers there by the time I click it.

I don't think it is a big problem, 28 unanswered questions out of just over a thousand isn't a terrible stat, but most of those unanswered questions seem to have been there for months. About 1/2 of them have an answer, but are not marked as such. Often the question isn't clear, or the answer is given as a comment.

I'm not saying that the D community is unresponsive, quite the opposite is true, my main point was that one cannot dismiss the value of discoverability.

On 8/14/13 2:03 PM, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> On Wednesday, 14 August 2013 at 20:56:33 UTC, Andre Artus wrote:
>> if questions go unanswered, or are answered after long delays, then
>> the likelihood of the person persisting with D is diminished.
>
> Is this a big problem with D? I don't do stack overflow often, but I try
> to check in every few days to check the D tag, and I usually see answers
> there by the time I click it.

You can define a filter that emails you whenever there are new questions on the "D" tag.

Andrei

On 8/14/13 2:59 PM, Andre Artus wrote:
> On Wednesday, 14 August 2013 at 21:03:37 UTC, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
>> On Wednesday, 14 August 2013 at 20:56:33 UTC, Andre Artus wrote:
>>> if questions go unanswered, or are answered after long delays, then
>>> the likelihood of the person persisting with D is diminished.
>>
>> Is this a big problem with D? I don't do stack overflow often, but I
>> try to check in every few days to check the D tag, and I usually see
>> answers there by the time I click it.
>
> I don't think it is a big problem, 28 unanswered questions out of just
> over a thousand isn't a terrible stat, but most of those unanswered
> questions seem to have been there for months. About 1/2 of them have an
> answer, but are not marked as such. Often the question isn't clear, or
> the answer is given as a comment.
>
> I'm not saying that the D community is unresponsive, quite the opposite
> is true, my main point was that one cannot dismiss the value of
> discoverability.

Yes. In a way SO is preferable to this forum because it's much more popular.

Andrei

On Wednesday, August 14, 2013 22:56:30 Andre Artus wrote:
> As with many things it depends on what you want to achieve. Answering on SO is as much about establishing awareness as it is about answering the question. For a newcomer to D StackOverflow may be their first port of call, if questions go unanswered, or are answered after long delays, then the likelihood of the person persisting with D is diminished.

I answer questions on SO all the time, but I rarely ask anything there, and I never ask anything D-related there. Of course, if my question is D-related, I'm much more likely to _have_ to ask my question here to get a good answer anyway just based on how many people would even know the answer, simply because I know enough that anything I asked would be much more likely to be esoteric and/or require in-depth knowledge. The experts are all here, and only a small portion of them are on SO.

In any case, I'd say that in general, asking your question on SO gives it more visibility to those outside of the core D community, but you're more likely to get a good answer here than there, because there are more people here, and this is where the experts are.

- Jonathan M Davis