5 ms·

This might be a silly question: what is D used for? I "scanned" the site fairly quickly and didn't grasp the general application idea behind it.

CyberShadow 11y ago
D is a general purpose compiled programming language. So, it can be used for almost anywhere e.g. C++ can be used.
pmalynin 11y ago
Its like C++, but "better"
- Ace17 11y ago
  Exactly. D is "C++ done right".
  - krylon 11y ago
    I am usually fairly skeptical of "X is Y done right", but in this case it seems to be true. C++ lovers might debate this, but D does take many lessons to heart that C++ programmers have learned the hard way. I also suspect, that C++ is more of a result of design-by-commitee, whereas D is - to a substantial degree - the brain-child of a single person.
    - acehreli 11y ago
      > I also suspect, that C++ is more of a result of design-by-commitee, whereas D is - to a substantial degree - the brain-child of a single person. That's exactly how I see it. However, "single person" era ended long ago. Since 2007, others (especially Andrei Alexandrescu) had influence in the design of the language.
luismarques 11y ago
I used to use D for larger tasks and Python for quicker ones, like processing some text file and so on. One day I realized that I prefered using D even for those smaller tasks, where quick and dirty solutions would do. One thing that helped was that the standard algorithms (from the std.algorithm module) are really useful and compose very well, once you get to know them, and allow solving those kinds of tasks both quickly and efficiently.
qznc 11y ago
Facebook has made a C-Preprocessor. D is great for such command line tooling. The standard library is not as extensive as Python's, but the situation is much better than in C-land. You can also use it as a scripting language. D has a nice framework for servers (vibed.org), so you can write webservices (REST,JSON,etc). There is no great full-stack web framework like Rails or Django though. GUI stuff works in theory, but I don't know any non-toy project. Games (OpenGL,SDL) are possible, but no serious project, yet. Android/iOS does not really work, yet. Same with embedded, standalone, kernel stuff. ARM in general needs more work. For HPC it really depends on the use case (see dlangscience.github.io). Vector support and GPU integration is lacking. I don't know any image, video, or audio processing stuff in D.
- jibalt 11y ago
  Actually, that C Preprocessor was written by Walter Bright for DMC; just about every file has his copyright notice, and no Facebook copyright notice. I think they just translated it from C++ to D.

CyberShadow 11y ago

D is a general purpose compiled programming language. So, it can be used for almost anywhere e.g. C++ can be used.

pmalynin 11y ago

Its like C++, but "better"

Ace17 11y ago
Exactly. D is "C++ done right".
- krylon 11y ago
  I am usually fairly skeptical of "X is Y done right", but in this case it seems to be true. C++ lovers might debate this, but D does take many lessons to heart that C++ programmers have learned the hard way. I also suspect, that C++ is more of a result of design-by-commitee, whereas D is - to a substantial degree - the brain-child of a single person.
  - acehreli 11y ago
    > I also suspect, that C++ is more of a result of design-by-commitee, whereas D is - to a substantial degree - the brain-child of a single person. That's exactly how I see it. However, "single person" era ended long ago. Since 2007, others (especially Andrei Alexandrescu) had influence in the design of the language.

luismarques 11y ago

I used to use D for larger tasks and Python for quicker ones, like processing some text file and so on. One day I realized that I prefered using D even for those smaller tasks, where quick and dirty solutions would do. One thing that helped was that the standard algorithms (from the std.algorithm module) are really useful and compose very well, once you get to know them, and allow solving those kinds of tasks both quickly and efficiently.

qznc 11y ago

Facebook has made a C-Preprocessor. D is great for such command line tooling. The standard library is not as extensive as Python's, but the situation is much better than in C-land. You can also use it as a scripting language. D has a nice framework for servers (vibed.org), so you can write webservices (REST,JSON,etc). There is no great full-stack web framework like Rails or Django though. GUI stuff works in theory, but I don't know any non-toy project. Games (OpenGL,SDL) are possible, but no serious project, yet. Android/iOS does not really work, yet. Same with embedded, standalone, kernel stuff. ARM in general needs more work. For HPC it really depends on the use case (see dlangscience.github.io). Vector support and GPU integration is lacking. I don't know any image, video, or audio processing stuff in D.

jibalt 11y ago
Actually, that C Preprocessor was written by Walter Bright for DMC; just about every file has his copyright notice, and no Facebook copyright notice. I think they just translated it from C++ to D.