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