On 5/5/13 6:06 PM, Nathan M. Swan wrote:
On Sunday, 5 May 2013 at 19:37:02 UTC, Tyro[17] wrote:
The main contributors of D are doing a wonderful job of enhancing the
language. I can confidently say that we are leagues ahead of where we
stood a just two years ago. But there has been a long cry for
documentation that has gone unanswered: not because they refuse to
cooperate but rather, because they are a small volunteer force, occupied
by real demands to address the quirks of the language, and lack the time
to all issues by themselves.
Don't we all :(
It stands then that the community can make a conscious effort to address
some of the outstanding issues. As such, I have chosen to champion the
tutorial/documentation effort. Though, I possess very little programming
experience but am willing to try and am hereby soliciting your
assistance in making this a reality.
Good luck!
Thanks.
dtutor.org is an active domain dedicated to providing tutorials for the
language. I will require content contributors but before we can begin to
provide content there are a couple of issues to address:
I. Features to be supported
Interactive Tutorials - Users must be able to modify and execute
examples in place to observe side effects.
You have DPaste to work with here (http://dpaste.dzfl.pl/), IIRC it is
connected to sample code at dlang.org.
Indeed we do. My initial sentiments was that this should be done with
DPaste but I'm now inclined to believe that Runestone is more suited for
the job. Of course it will require some effort to port it to D.
Interactive Books - A number of free books exist around the internet
that can be ported to D. The first two that come to mind are How to
"Think Like a Computer Scientist", "Problem Solving with Algorithms and
Data Structures Using Python" and Ali Çehreli's very own "Programming
in D".
Videos are useful as well.
Should be part of the tutorial/book where applicable.
Online Judge - to be used to determine accuracy and efficiency of
submitted solutions to problems and planned programming contests.
I've had good experiences learning via stuff like that.
Though not much, the little experience I with them was comparatively
positive.
Forum - Unlocked to individual users per problem after solution
accepted by Online Judge.
Rejected Software (creators of vibe) has vibenews, which I believe is
quite customizable.
Thanks, wasn't aware of that.
II. Look and Feel
Look and feel of the site will be largely influenced by two things: The
DConf website and this little gem which provides encouragement for the
ideas behind interactive tutorials/books:
Runestone (https://github.com/bnmnetp/runestone);
I came across it while searching for ideas on how to get started with
dtutor.org and must admit: it is a fascinating little project.
It is!
I have to vouch for cplusplus.com, which isn't interactive, but I was
able to teach myself C++ with only that and "C++ for Dummies," so it
worked for one guy.
Hope to provide a much better experience for the D community. Not to
dismiss cplusplus.com (the have done a good job) but the hope is to help
elevate D to its rightful place in the programming community at large.
Thus, the aim to raise the bar that much higher.
Logo: My idea for the logo is simply this (see attachment):
D!(tutor).org
If your target audience is people who know little about D, this would
just look odd.
Until they reach enlightenment... Then it all make sense!!! But you
point is noted.
Calling all website designers, database developers, authors and D
enthusiast. Lend a hand in eliminating this problem.
Like everyone, my time is limited, but I can help a bit. Sign me up!
Every little bit counts. Thanks.
Andrew
NMS
