As-It-Stands: This tutorial is Heavy Alpha. This means:
- The information in here might be incorrect.
- Navigation links might be broken.
- The information in here has only been tested and verified on my machines.
- There are LOTS of spelling and grammar issues.
- There are LOTS of improper markdown and graphical issues.
- The information in here is more akin to notes as opposed to an actual tutorial.
That being said:
- You can probably learn something new by following along.
- If you find a mistake, bug, markdown issue have a question, etc... please do any of the following:
- Fork this tutorial, make a new branch, fix the problem and submit a pull request it for review.
- Create a new Issue In the Tracker.
Thanks.
##Tutorial: Understanding the D Environment.
This is a series of tutorials which demonstrates the D ecology. What does this mean? A language's ecology is the summation of tools and resources a programmer might use to create a workflow for his project. Some examples of this might be:
- Using a compiler to build his project,
- Using git to version his source code.
- Using DUB to manage his project dependencies.
- Using Linux Containers to create a isolated virtual environment for his project.
- Using Debugging tools.
You'll notice, this isn't specifically about the D language. It is about leveraging tools to create a sane and more productive workflow.
##Structure of the tutorial You'll also notice that these tutorials are not linear in nature. They are written with the expectation that a person might be interested in learning one specific tool. Some tutorials might have some dependencies which require knowledge of other tools. However, most are written to be mostly self-contained.
All tutorials are written as a "tech-tree" which represents the D ecology as a whole. This "tech-tree" is broken into "tech-branches" which represent the knowledge needed to master a tool or technology. Each "tech-branch" can be further broken down into several "tech-leaf" tutorials which introduces one simple concept and steps to master that one concept in 10 minutes.
As a result of this structure, a student following along can choose a curriculum based on mastering a specific technology he might want to learn, or choose a curriculum based on his current level of proficency.
##Don't just blindly follow a recipie. UNDERSTAND IT Too many tutorials are written in a way that someone can simply copy-and-paste and never actually understand the significance of what they did. The goal of these tutorials isn't just to show someone how to do something, but also to UNDERSTAND what and why they did it. To this effect each "tech-leaf" tutorial has exersises which encourage a student following along to think about what he did. There are also "extra-credit" sections which provide further exploration of the lesson. Finally, each "tech-leaf" tutorial has a section dedicated to reading the documentation, such that, a person can hopefully teach himself if he has a problem or question.
#Getting Started As stated previously, there are two reccommended paths:
A student who is new to the D ecosystem might want to start with the proficency curriculum. This curriculum focuses on starting with a minimum knowledge base and sequentially adding to it. This curriculum jumps around different technologies based on proficency level. Once all the "Begginner" skills in all tech-branches have been mastered, the curriculum will escalate to the "Intermediate" skills and once again iterate through the "Intemediate" tutorials in all the tech-branches.
A student who is familiar with some or a majority of tools in the D ecosystem might prefer to start with the skill curriculum which focus on specific technologies. So, for instance, a person who wants to learn more about DUB specifically and ignore everything else, might choose the skill curriculum.