Learning D: Leverage the modern convenience and modelling power of the D programming language to develop software with native efficiency

Cover ....1

Copyright....3

Credits....4

Foreword....6

About the Author....7

About the Reviewers....8

www.PacktPub.com....10

Table of Contents....12

Preface....22

Chapter 1: How to Get a D in Programming....28

Say hello to D....29

An introductory program....30

Getting help....34

The Digital Mars D compiler....36

Frontends, backends, and linkers....36

Installing DMD....38

The Windows installer....38

Installing from the ZIP....39

Compiling the example....40

Documentation and source code....41

The documentation....41

The source....43

Say hello to MovieMan....43

The problem....44

The features....44

DUB – the D build tool and package manager....45

Getting started....46

Configuring the MovieMan project....47

Understanding dub.sdl....48

Building and running MovieMan....49

Changing the output directory....51

Summary....51

Chapter 2: Building a Foundation with D Fundamentals....52

The very basics....53

Identifiers....53

A note about scope....53

More on modules....55

Module declarations....55

More about import declarations....57

The special package module....59

Comments....60

Variable declaration and initialization....61

Basic types....62

The types....63

Literals....64

Integer literals....64

Floating-point literals....65

Character literals....66

Conversions....66

Alias declarations....68

Properties....68

Basic operators....70

Arithmetic operators....70

Bitwise operators....71

Relational and logical operators....72

The cast operator ....73

Derived data types....73

Pointers....73

Arrays....75

Array basics....75

Rectangular arrays....78

Slices....80

Array literals....83

Arrays and void....84

Array operations....84

Strings....87

String essentials....87

Alternative string literals....89

Associative arrays....91

Control flow statements....92

Traditional loops....93

The foreach loop....94

Traditional conditionals....95

The goto statement....98

Type qualifiers – const and immutable....99

The contracts....99

With the basic types....99

With pointers....100

With arrays....102

Conversions....103

Functions....103

Overloaded functions....105

ref and out....105

inout parameters....108

lazy parameters....109

Function attributes....110

Return statements and memory....110

Function pointers and delegates....112

MovieMan – first steps....114

The io module....114

The app module....118

Summary....119

Chapter 3: Programming Objects the D Way....120

User-defined types....120

Enumerations....120

Unions....122

Structs and classes....122

Working with objects....125

Encapsulation with protection attributes....125

Public....125

Private....126

Package....127

Voldemort types....128

Constructors and destructors....129

Class constructors and destructors....129

Struct constructors and destructors....132

Static constructors and destructors....135

Inheritance and polymorphism....137

Interfaces....140

Fake inheritance....141

Nested classes....142

Objects with const and immutable....143

const as a storage class....145

Error handling....145

Scope guards....145

Exception handling....146

Contract programming and unit tests....149

Assert contracts....149

Function contracts....150

Invariants....150

Unit tests....152

MovieMan – adding menus....153

The Menu base class....153

The MainMenu class....155

The DisplayMenu class....157

Summary....157

Chapter 4: Running Code at Compile Time....158

Pragmas....159

The lib pragma....159

The msg pragma....160

The inline pragma....161

Conditional compilation....161

The version condition....161

The debug condition....164

The static if condition....165

Compile-time strings....166

The import expression....166

String mixins....167

Compile-time function execution....168

Odds and ends....172

static assert....172

The is expression....173

Alignment....174

Compile-time reflection....180

User-defined attributes....181

Summary....184

Chapter 5: Generic Programming Made Easy....186

Template basics....187

Templates as code blocks....187

Struct and class templates....190

Enum templates....193

Function templates....193

Special features....195

More template parameters....196

Value parameters....196

Alias parameters....197

This parameters....199

Beyond the basics....200

Template specializations....200

Specialization on pointers and arrays....202

Template constraints....204

Template mixins....205

Variadic templates....207

Terminology....209

More on usage....211

Operator overloading....213

Non-templated operator overloads....213

Comparison overloads – opEquals and opCmp....213

Function call overloads....216

Assignment overloads....217

Index overloads....218

Templated operator overloads....219

Unary overloads....219

Binary overloads....220

Cast overloads....222

Operator assignment overloads....222

Slice operator overloads....223

Other overloads....225

opDispatch....225

opApply....227

toHash....228

MovieMan – the database....229

db.d....229

Back to the menus....231

Summary....233

Chapter 6: Understanding Ranges....234

Ranges defined....234

The problem....235

The solution....237

The interface....237

A range for arrays....239

The implementation of filter....240

The test....242

The real ranges....243

Input ranges....243

Forward ranges....245

Bidirectional ranges....246

Random-access ranges....246

Output ranges....247

Optional range primitives....248

Ranges in use....250

Custom ranges....251

Getting a range from a stack....251

A name generator range....253

Other considerations....255

Custom algorithms....256

Summary....257

Chapter 7: Composing Functional Pipelines with Algorithms and Ranges....258

Functional programming and composable pipelines....259

A simple example....260

A more complex example....263

Sometimes we can't....265

Navigating Phobos....266

std.range....266

Generative ranges....267

Selective ranges....269

Compositional ranges....271

std.algorithm....274

Comparison....274

Iteration....276

Mutation....278

Searching....280

Set operations....281

Sorting....282

std.array....284

Appender....284

assocArray....285

join....285

Where to look for more....286

MovieMan – wrapping up....286

The db module....286

The display menu....290

Making it better....295

Summary....295

Chapter 8: Exploring the Wide World of D....296

Online resources....297

DWiki....297

Planet D....297

reddit and StackOverflow....297

This Week in D....298

DConf....299

DSource....300

Editors and IDEs....301

Text editors....301

Vim and Emacs....301

Textadept....301

Sublime Text....302

IDEs....303

Visual D....303

Mono-D....303

DDT....303

Code::Blocks....304

Tools and utilities....304

DMD....304

Optimized and debug builds....304

Changing the default output....305

Compiling libraries....305

Using libraries....306

Warnings....308

Profiling....308

Code coverage analysis....310

Compile and run....312

GDC and LDC....312

GDC....312

LDC....313

RDMD....313

DustMite....314

DCD....316

DVM....316

Libraries....317

code.dlang.org....317

Using libraries from the DUB registry....317

Registering libraries with the DUB registry....320

Browsing the DUB registry....323

Deimos and DerelictOrg....323

Summary....324

Chapter 9: Connecting D with C....326

Preliminaries....327

Terminology....327

Bindings, wrappers, and ports....327

Dynamic and static – context matters....329

Object file formats....332

Linkage attributes....334

Name mangling....334

Calling conventions....335

Putting it together....336

Binding D to C....338

Function prototypes....339

Manually loading shared libraries....341

Trying it out....343

C types to D types....346

Strings and characters....347

Special types....347

Enumerations....348

Structures....349

Pointers....352

Type aliases....353

Function pointers....354

Defined constants....356

Function parameters and return types....356

Symbols....358

Global variables....359

Macros....360

Conditional compilation....364

Calling C from D....366

D arrays and C arrays....366

Basic arrays....366

Arrays of arrays....369

Strings....371

Memory....373

C callbacks and exceptions....374

Calling D from C....376

Summary....378

Chapter 10: Taking D Online....380

The software....381

vibe.d....381

Package overview....381

The anatomy of a vibe.d web app....382

The database library....384

MovieManWeb....386

Getting started....387

The basics of diet templates....390

Tags and indentation....391

Including and extending templates....393

The MovieManWeb layout....395

Setting up the database....397

Fleshing out the index page....401

Mapping web interface functions to URLs....401

Rendering diet templates....402

Rewriting index.dt....403

Adding movies....404

Implementing the addMovie function....405

Implementing the postAdd function....407

Implementing add.dt....409

Modifying index.dt....410

Modifying app.d....412

Modifying layout.dt....412

Listing movies....413

Implementing the listMovies function....413

Modifying the index function....415

Modifying index.dt....416

Finding movies....418

Implementing the postFind function....418

Implementing find.dt....419

Modifying index.dt....420

Modifying app.d and layout.dt....421

Implementing the findMovie functions....421

Editing and deleting movies....424

Expanding on MovieManWeb....426

Summary....427

Chapter 11: Taking D to the Next Level....428

Concurrency....429

Threads and fibers....429

Threads....429

Fibers....430

Data sharing....431

__gshared....432

Shared....432

Synchronization and atomics....433

Automatic synchronization....433

Manual synchronization....435

Atomics....435

Message passing....435

Parallelism....436

More information....438

SafeD....438

Functional purity....440

The garbage collector....441

Connecting with C++....442

More on Phobos....443

std.container....443

std.datetime....444

std.digest....444

std.experimental....444

std.getopt....445

std.process....446

std.socket....446

Modules for Unicode and other encodings....446

System bindings....447

Game development with D....447

The future of D....448

Summary....449

Index....450

Leverage the modern convenience and modelling power of the D programming language to develop software with native efficiency

About This Book

• Acquire the skills to understand the fundamentals of D through its support for imperative and object-oriented programming
• Take advantage of D's powerful compile-time features, templates and ranges to apply generative, generic, and functional style
• A systematic guide that will help you become familiar with the concepts in D with the help of simple and easy-to-understand examples

Who This Book Is For

This book is intended for those with some background in a C-family language who want to learn how to apply their knowledge and experience to D. Perhaps you're a college student looking to use D for hobby projects, or a career programmer interested in expanding your skillset. This book will help you get up to speed with the language and avoid common pitfalls that arise when translating C-family experience to D.

What You Will Learn

• Compile programs with DMD and manage projects with DUB
• Work efficiently by binding your D programs with new and existing C libraries
• Generate code at compile-time to enhance runtime performance
• Implement complex templates for more powerful generic code
• Write idiomatic D with range-based functional pipelines
• Use the DUB repository to find a link with a variety of D libraries
• Implement a web-app in D from the ground up

In Detail

D is a modern programming language that is both powerful and efficient. It combines multiple paradigms in a way that opens up a whole new world of software design. It is used to develop both desktop and web applications, with future targets including mobile, and is available on multiple platforms. It is familiar to anyone with some experience in one or more of the C-family languages. However, hidden in the similarities are several differences that can be surprising when trying to apply common idioms from other languages. When learning D on your own, this can make it more time-consuming to master. In order to make the most of the language and become an idiomatic D programmer, it's necessary to learn how to think in D.

This book familiarizes you with D from the ground up, with a heavy focus on helping you to avoid surprises so that you can take your D knowledge to the next level more quickly and painlessly.

Your journey begins with a taste of the language and the basics of compiling D programs with DMD, the reference D compiler developed by Digital Mars, and DUB, a community-developed build utility and package manager. You then set out on an exploration of major language features. This begins with the fundamentals of D, including built-in types, conditionals, loops and all of the basic building-blocks of a D program, followed by an examination of D's object-oriented programming support. You'll learn how these features differ from languages you may already be familiar with. Next up are D's compile-time features, such as Compile-Time Function Evaluation and conditional compilation, then generic programming with templates. After that, you'll learn the more advanced features of ranges and functional pipeline programming. To enhance your D experience, you are next taken on a tour of the D ecosystem and learn how to make D interact with C. Finally, you get a look at D web development using the vibe.d project and the book closes with some handy advice on where to go next.

Style and approach

A friendly guide to the D programming language and its ecosystem that walks programmers through all they need to know for a painless experience in learning D.