I used to be more actively involved in the newsgroup here. But work, freelancing, family, and friends have become bigger time-commitments over the last year, so I haven't been contributing much, mostly because I haven't had much time to tinker with programming in D.

But I'm still lurking. At least once a week, I check in here and skim through the new posts to the NG. I always have my eye out for when Walter posts that message about the release of the 1.0 compiler.

And at that point--when I'll know there's both language and compiler stability--I plan on getting a little bit more involved and starting to tinker again. There are libraries I'd like to write and contribute to community, but--for my own reasons--I don't want to do it until D reaches 1.0.

Anyhow, it seems as though there are far fewer posts per day than there used to be in the D newsgroup. Is the original momentum of interest in D slowing down? Or do you think there are lots of people like me who are waiting in the wings for the big event, the release of the first major version of the compiler?

When that happens, do you think interest in this language will surge back up again?

--Benji Smith

Im in the lurker category , waiting for 1.0.  I think once D hits 1.0 , we as the D community will need to do some advocating , putting projects up on sourceforge / freshmeat , spreading the word to fellow programmers etc.

Charlie



In article <39fkp0hvbjgkljp5gc2ammhvb14ea5jkq1@4ax.com>, Benji Smith says...
>
>I used to be more actively involved in the newsgroup here. But work, freelancing, family, and friends have become bigger time-commitments over the last year, so I haven't been contributing much, mostly because I haven't had much time to tinker with programming in D.
>
>But I'm still lurking. At least once a week, I check in here and skim through the new posts to the NG. I always have my eye out for when Walter posts that message about the release of the 1.0 compiler.
>
>And at that point--when I'll know there's both language and compiler stability--I plan on getting a little bit more involved and starting to tinker again. There are libraries I'd like to write and contribute to community, but--for my own reasons--I don't want to do it until D reaches 1.0.
>
>Anyhow, it seems as though there are far fewer posts per day than there used to be in the D newsgroup. Is the original momentum of interest in D slowing down? Or do you think there are lots of people like me who are waiting in the wings for the big event, the release of the first major version of the compiler?
>
>When that happens, do you think interest in this language will surge back up again?
>
>--Benji Smith

"Benji Smith" <dlanguage@xxagg.com> wrote in message news:39fkp0hvbjgkljp5gc2ammhvb14ea5jkq1@4ax.com...
> I used to be more actively involved in the newsgroup here. But work, freelancing, family, and friends have become bigger time-commitments over the last year, so I haven't been contributing much, mostly because I haven't had much time to tinker with programming in D.
>
> But I'm still lurking. At least once a week, I check in here and skim through the new posts to the NG. I always have my eye out for when Walter posts that message about the release of the 1.0 compiler.
>
> And at that point--when I'll know there's both language and compiler stability--I plan on getting a little bit more involved and starting to tinker again. There are libraries I'd like to write and contribute to community, but--for my own reasons--I don't want to do it until D reaches 1.0.
>
> Anyhow, it seems as though there are far fewer posts per day than there used to be in the D newsgroup. Is the original momentum of interest in D slowing down? Or do you think there are lots of people like me who are waiting in the wings for the big event, the release of the first major version of the compiler?
>
> When that happens, do you think interest in this language will surge back up again?
>
> --Benji Smith

It's tough to keep the level up when pretty much everyone is tinkering. It's very easy to have one's attention turn elsewhere and tinker on something else. All the talk of "wait until after 1.0" has probably thrown a wet blanket on some important topics that should open up after 1.0. Maybe there are some nasty bugs that have frustrated people, too, so that fixing those will bring them back to D. It's nice to see posts like DUI getting working again.

Also I'm really glad David Friedman is keeping gdc going and that it is getting into the gcc branch. That will go a long way towards programmers accepting D.

-Ben

"Benji Smith" <dlanguage@xxagg.com> wrote in message news:39fkp0hvbjgkljp5gc2ammhvb14ea5jkq1@4ax.com...
> Anyhow, it seems as though there are far fewer posts per day than there used to be in the D newsgroup. Is the original momentum of interest in D slowing down? Or do you think there are lots of people like me who are waiting in the wings for the big event, the release of the first major version of the compiler?
>
> When that happens, do you think interest in this language will surge back up again?

The hits on the web site and the downloads of dmd are as high as ever. There was a spike up last April, but I think that was the result of two articles on D out that month in the programming magazines.

Interestingly, the traffic regularly drops off on the weekends, but comes back on mondays. That's a strong indication that people are using D at work!

In article <cndr3h$1cos$1@digitaldaemon.com>, Walter says...
>
>
>"Benji Smith" <dlanguage@xxagg.com> wrote in message news:39fkp0hvbjgkljp5gc2ammhvb14ea5jkq1@4ax.com...
>> Anyhow, it seems as though there are far fewer posts per day than there used to be in the D newsgroup. Is the original momentum of interest in D slowing down? Or do you think there are lots of people like me who are waiting in the wings for the big event, the release of the first major version of the compiler?
>>
>> When that happens, do you think interest in this language will surge back up again?
>
>The hits on the web site and the downloads of dmd are as high as ever. There was a spike up last April, but I think that was the result of two articles on D out that month in the programming magazines.
>
>Interestingly, the traffic regularly drops off on the weekends, but comes back on mondays. That's a strong indication that people are using D at work!
>
>

Either that or they are fooling the PHB's and playing around - it looks a lot like C/++ (as if they'd know the difference) <G>

D sure is a lot more fun than - Yikes .. gotta go!

"Benji Smith" <dlanguage@xxagg.com> wrote in message news:39fkp0hvbjgkljp5gc2ammhvb14ea5jkq1@4ax.com...
> But I'm still lurking. At least once a week, I check in here and skim through the new posts to the NG. I always have my eye out for when Walter posts that message about the release of the 1.0 compiler.
>
> And at that point--when I'll know there's both language and compiler stability--I plan on getting a little bit more involved and starting to tinker again. There are libraries I'd like to write and contribute to community, but--for my own reasons--I don't want to do it until D reaches 1.0.

I only tinker with D and have done a few projects of my own (It would be nice to have a good IDE and debugger), a number of people I know rejected it due to lack of a usable debugger and IDE (understandable if your used to Visual Studio or CodeWarrior).

G

I have similar thoughts.

I *really* want to use 'D' on some freeware projects, but ....

* debugging has improved, but has a ways to go

* gui's have improved, but also have a ways to go (thx to those
working on them)

* phobos library seems more than adequate for my usage, but there are so many ng complaints (and inferences that it will be overhauled) that I'm reluctant to use it in depth

* difficult for this newbie to use external C libraries because of linkage issues unless DMC used

* as near as I can tell ... so far it seems like D's best usage would be high performance 'ports' of Java console apps (such as things like fop and other Apache-like code for xml, other dog-slow java code, etc.) I'm aware of efforts to convert mature C and C++ libraries to 'D', but this seems like an unproductive use of time.  I'm not the most imaginative person around, but with gui's still hard to develop, I haven't really figured out what 'D' is good for in the short to moderate time frame.

"Lynn Allan" <l_d_allan@adelphia.net> wrote in message news:cnfmrc$119p$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> I have similar thoughts.
>
> I *really* want to use 'D' on some freeware projects, but ....
>
> * debugging has improved, but has a ways to go

In what way?


> * gui's have improved, but also have a ways to go (thx to those
> working on them)
>
> * phobos library seems more than adequate for my usage, but there are so many ng complaints (and inferences that it will be overhauled) that I'm reluctant to use it in depth

I use it in depth <g>.

> * difficult for this newbie to use external C libraries because of linkage issues unless DMC used

Why not use DMC? DMC is a well used and popular C compiler.


> * as near as I can tell ... so far it seems like D's best usage would be high performance 'ports' of Java console apps (such as things like fop and other Apache-like code for xml, other dog-slow java code, etc.) I'm aware of efforts to convert mature C and C++ libraries to 'D', but this seems like an unproductive use of time.  I'm not the most imaginative person around, but with gui's still hard to develop, I haven't really figured out what 'D' is good for in the short to moderate time frame.

D is good for any project you'd consider using C or C++ for. Sometimes using a particular existing library may dictate what language you use, but other than that, why?

D has been usuable for me for quite some time, all the new releases are just bug fixes. The more people who use it now, the more bug fixes before 1.0.

It is a hobby language for me and I've been too busy in college to work on my hobby.

I'm sure next summer will be a great summer for D though : )

Keep up the good work on D Walter, and make sure to call the press when 1.0 hits the shelves!


Benji Smith wrote:
> I used to be more actively involved in the newsgroup here. But work,
> freelancing, family, and friends have become bigger time-commitments
> over the last year, so I haven't been contributing much, mostly
> because I haven't had much time to tinker with programming in D.
> 
> But I'm still lurking. At least once a week, I check in here and skim
> through the new posts to the NG. I always have my eye out for when
> Walter posts that message about the release of the 1.0 compiler.
> 
> And at that point--when I'll know there's both language and compiler
> stability--I plan on getting a little bit more involved and starting
> to tinker again. There are libraries I'd like to write and contribute
> to community, but--for my own reasons--I don't want to do it until D
> reaches 1.0.
> 
> Anyhow, it seems as though there are far fewer posts per day than
> there used to be in the D newsgroup. Is the original momentum of
> interest in D slowing down? Or do you think there are lots of people
> like me who are waiting in the wings for the big event, the release of
> the first major version of the compiler?
> 
> When that happens, do you think interest in this language will surge
> back up again?
> 
> --Benji Smith

I see also a change on the user of these groups.
first we had people interested on a new language:
what is new, how it's done...
Now we will have people interested on using the
language.
I'm on the second group, just arrived too early.

Ant