Learn to Tango with D [Paperback]

Macleod Kris Bell (Author), Ivar Lars Igesund (Author), Sean Kelly (Author), Michael Parker (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590599608 | ISBN-13: 978-1590599600 | Publication Date: February 4, 2008 | Edition: 1

In recent years much work has been put into creating programming languages which embody a blend of many of the most admired characteristics of their predecessors. One such language is D, which provides developers with the speed of languages such as C and C++, but with the power and flexibility of languages such as Ruby and Python.

Learning to Tango with D introduces you to the powerful D language, with special attention given to the Tango software library. A concise yet thorough overview of the language’s syntax and features is presented, followed by an introduction to Tango, the popular general purpose library which you’ll return to time and again when building your D applications.

Authored by prominent D developers Kris Bell, Lars Ivar Igesund, Sean Kelly, and Michael Parker, you'll gain not only the knowledge required to begin building your own D applications, but also benefit from the insight these authors have acquired due to their extensive experience working with and participating in the development of the D language.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

For more than 20 years, Kris Bell has been designing and implementing software systems covering a broad product range. Some commercial systems include enterprise & Internet application-platforms, RAD toolsets, factory-automation, carrier-grade middleware, embedded-OS & rendering engines, immersive environment-simulation, and interactive-clothing. Kris is a founding member and active contributor to the Tango library.

Lars Ivar Igesund holds a MSc in Computer Science from NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). He was in the introductory programming course team as a teaching assistant during that time. Outside of the university, he has worked with network administration and support in both public service and private sector, and helped develop 3D graphic systems in C/C++. He is currently selling consultant services through his own company, Igesund Enterprise Software, doing both D and Java projects. Lars has been involved in the D community since 2003, and part of the Tango project lead since 2006.

After serving four years in the United States Army as a medic, Michael Parker settled down in Seoul, Korea, in 1994. While working on a History major at the University of Maryland, Asian Division, he took a job as an English instructor. In the years since, he has held several part-time jobs for the U.S. government and has taught English in a variety of environments. He took up programming as a hobby in the late 1990s and soon uncovered a passion for game development. Eventually, he found himself developing Java web applications for small, Korean startups as a contractor. He discovered D in 2003 and a year later started the open source project called 'Derelict'. He joined the Tango team in 2006 as a documentation writer and later took on a programming role. In early 2007 he stopped accepting contract work in order to begin development on his first commercial game (using D, of course).

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (February 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590599608
• ISBN-13: 978-1590599600
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid introduction to D basics, May 13, 2008

By 

Ben Speakmon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn to Tango with D (Paperback)

The first English-language book on D, Learn To Tango with D, is a no-crap quick ramp-up guide to the language and the popular Tango general-purpose library. Half of the 188 pages are an introduction to how D does things, while the other half walks through some Tango basics. It's written in a fast, loose idiom that doesn't try to teach you programming as much as it shows how to do your favorite C++ or Java tricks in D. This fills a need since the existing D documentation is rather technical and not well indexed, but it's not something the dedicated and curious engineer couldn't figure out for himself.

After the basics, you're introduced to Tango. I should point out that D ships with a standard library called Phobos and that Tango is a (friendly) competitor to it. The two aren't mutually compatible at all, and you'll run into D code that uses each, so don't think you're getting the entire D story from this book. That said, Tango has neat ideas and a passionate community behind it, so you're not making any compromise on quality by using it. This section is a bit too high-level for my taste; it's an introduction, not a reference. While you can certainly get production-quality API docs from the Tango web site, don't expect the book to be one.

Summing up, this book is for experienced C/C++/Java programmers who've heard about this D thing and want to see what it's all about. Those who prefer learning from source code or documentation won't really need this, and those who do need it will probably find no need to read it a second time. However, as the only book on D in the King's English, it's worth recommending solely on that basis.

(Review text copied from my website.)

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book that accomplishes its goals, August 19, 2009

By 

Eric Berend - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Learn to Tango with D (Paperback)

I found that this book strikes a very comfortable balance between adequately introducing the essential details of various important aspects of the D language and this version of a necessary "standard library". Given how recent the introduction of the D programming language is, and the relatively small size of its dedicated community, it should not be surprising that there are few published works defining the language and some of its optimal coding signatures.

This book's goal is to teach the use of the Tango standard library for the D programming language. It is not meant as a comprehensive teaching guide to D itself! Within this limitation, it does succeed, admirably. Contrary to another reviewer's scathing criticism; I found that, while terse, the descriptions and examples set forth in this book are clear, hew closely to the point at hand, maintain elegance in their simplicity, and reveal only necessary aspects of complexity in context.

To lambaste this generally excellent book for a personal disappointment regarding its scope, is inappropriate; and in any event, it obviously deserves well more than a mere one star. To that reviewer I respond: you are petty and have done the D language community a disservice in your churlishness.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Inadequate, May 6, 2010

By 

Larry R. Luther (Glendale, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Learn to Tango with D (Paperback)

The book is clearly inadequate. It doesn't even have an Index. It's describing a language and library which is superior to C++ and yet has less pages than "The C Programming Language" by Kernigan & Richie. It's describing D version 1 but D version 2 is out with more syntax changes. On the other hand it was the only book available and it does fill in some of the considerable gaps of the "D" description on the Digital Mars website.