D Programming Language 2.0

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Last update Fri Mar 19 10:46:33 2010

# D Programming Language 2.0

> "It seems to me that most of the "new" programming languages fall into one of two categories: Those from academia with radical new paradigms and those from large corporations with a focus on RAD and the web. Maybe it's time for a new language born out of practical experience implementing compilers." -- Michael

> "Great, just what I need.. another D in programming." -- Segfault

D is a systems programming language. Its focus is on combining the power and high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages like Ruby and Python. Special attention is given to the needs of quality assurance, documentation, management, portability and reliability.

The D language is statically typed and compiles directly to machine code. It's multiparadigm, supporting many programming styles: imperative, object oriented, and metaprogramming. It's a member of the C syntax family, and its appearance is very similar to that of C++. Here's a quick list of features.

It is not governed by a corporate agenda or any overarching theory of programming. The needs and contributions of the D programming community form the direction it goes.

There are two versions of the language:

1. D version 1 which is stable.
2. D version 2 which is the next generation under development.

There are currently four implementations:

1. Digital Mars dmd for Windows 1.0 2.0, x86 Linux 1.0 2.0, Mac OS X 1.0 2.0, and x86 FreeBSD 1.0
2. LLVM D Compiler ldc for D version 1.
3. Gnu D compiler gdc.
4. D.NET compiler alpha for .NET for D version 2.

A large and growing collection of D source code and projects are at dsource. More links to innumerable D wikis, libraries, tools, media articles, etc. are at dlinks.

This document is available as a pdf, as well as in Japanese and Portugese translations. A German book Programming in D: Introduction to the new Programming Language is available, as well as a Japanese book D Language Perfect Guide.

This is an example D program illustrating some of the capabilities:

    #!/usr/bin/dmd -run
    /* sh style script syntax is supported */

    /* Hello World in D
       To compile:
         dmd hello.d
       or to optimize:
         dmd -O -inline -release hello.d
    */

    import std.stdio;

    void main(string[] args)
    {
        writefln("Hello World, Reloaded");

        // auto type inference and built-in foreach
        foreach (argc, argv; args)
        {
            // Object Oriented Programming
            auto cl = new CmdLin(argc, argv);
            // Improved typesafe printf
            writeln(cl.argnum, cl.suffix, " arg: ", cl.argv);
            // Automatic or explicit memory management
            delete cl;
        }

        // Nested structs and classes
        struct specs
        {
            // all members automatically initialized
            int count, allocated;
        }

        // Nested functions can refer to outer
        // variables like args
        specs argspecs()
        {
            specs* s = new specs;
            // no need for '->'
            s.count = args.length;		   // get length of array with .length
            s.allocated = typeof(args).sizeof; // built-in native type properties
            foreach (argv; args)
                s.allocated += argv.length * typeof(argv[0]).sizeof;
            return *s;
        }

        // built-in string and common string operations
        writefln("argc = %d, " ~ "allocated = %d",
    	argspecs().count, argspecs().allocated);
    }

    class CmdLin
    {
        private int _argc;
        private string _argv;

    public:
        this(int argc, string argv)	// constructor
        {
            _argc = argc;
            _argv = argv;
        }

        int argnum()
        {
            return _argc + 1;
        }

        string argv()
        {
            return _argv;
        }

        string suffix()
        {
            string suffix = "th";
            switch (_argc)
            {
              case 0:
                suffix = "st";
                break;
              case 1:
                suffix = "nd";
                break;
              case 2:
                suffix = "rd";
                break;
              default:
    	    break;
            }
            return suffix;
        }
    }

Note: all D users agree that by downloading and using D, or reading the D specs, they will explicitly identify any claims to intellectual property rights with a copyright or patent notice in any posted or emailed feedback sent to Digital Mars.

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