Last update August 31, 2010

News Dm D



Table of contents of this page
Newsgroups   
Learning Newsgroup   
Language Development Newsgroup   
Announcements Newsgroup   
GNU Newsgroup   
D Debugger Newsgroup   
D GUI Newsgroup   
D Template Library Newsgroup   
Bugs Newsgroup   
Old D Newsgroup (deprecated)   
Netiquette   
Newsreaders   
Threaded View   
Disadvantages to the Web Interface   
Decoding Attachments   
Newsgroup Posts about the Newsgroup Interfaces   

Newsgroups    

The Digital Mars newsgroups is where you will find most of the discussions and help related to D. The D mail/news gateway is available for those that prefer to receive mail instead of reading newsgroups. It is suggested that you use a newsreader rather than the provided web interface, and please note some of the disadvantages related to the interface.

If you prefer more of a forum format, you might try using the dsource.org "General" forum, these forums are not frequented by as many people.

Learning Newsgroup    

The digitalmars.D.learn newsgroup is the place to ask questions about D. The questions can range from how to do something, to where to find information on something. Until you become familiar with the different newsgroups this is probably going to be the place to post you question or comments.

Language Development Newsgroup    

The digitalmars.D newsgroup is the busiest D newsgroup. Please only post here if the message doesn't relate to one of the other newsgroups. Generally if it relates to the development of a the language, rather than understanding of the language, it will go here. Try and rephrase your post so that they would fit into digitalmars.D.learn instead of here e.g. instead of posting "D should have multiple inheritance," it should be, "Why doesn't D not have multiple inheritance?"

Announcements Newsgroup    

The digitalmars.D.announce newsgroup is a meant to be the place to post announcements for D-related projects (such items as a new program relating to D, an updated program, or even a real-world event relating to D). It also exists "to give a place where people who are looking for D related products to be able to find them a lot easier without sifting through hundreds of irrelevant threads" ( NG:digitalmars.D.announce/38). Personal posts such as "I'm going on vacation" and "Bob says 'hi' to everyone" are also allowed in this newsgroup.

GNU Newsgroup    

The D.gnu newsgroup mostly discuss running the GCC port of D (GDC). See also: GccFrontEnd.

D Debugger Newsgroup    

For all things related to using debuggers with D ( NG:digitalmars.D.announce/7634). See also Debug Environments.

D GUI Newsgroup    

The digitalmars.D.dwt newsgroup is dedicated to discussing GUI library issues in D. DWT is the current "official" GUI library for D, but discussions about other GUI libraries as also welcome. See also: GUI Libraries.

D Template Library Newsgroup    

The digitalmars.D.dtl newsgroup is dedicated to discussing templates and template libraries. See also: D Template Library.

Bugs Newsgroup    

Bugs in dmd, gdc, and phobos should be reported in the issue tracking system for the D Programming Language. The digitalmars.D.bugs newsgroup will receive a copy of all issue tracking system traffic. The newsgroup is dedicated to discussing possible bugs, work-arounds, and whether the alleged bugs are actually bugs. Feature requests do not belong in the bugs newsgroup or in the issue tracking system. See Bug Reports for some tips on writing a good bug report.

Old D Newsgroup (deprecated)    

The old D newsgroup is the oldest newsgroup related to D. Please don't post new threads here. The only posting that should occur (if any) is replying to old threads. If you do reply to an old thread, you should consider cross-posting it to the appropriate new D newsgroup. (The newsgroup is being maintained due to the wealth of D discussions that have taken place there in the past.)

Netiquette    

If you're new to newsgroups, it might be helpful to read a general guide to netiquette, such as this classic, The Core Rules of Netiquette by Virginia Shea.

Asking smart questions is key to getting good answers. Luckily, Eric S. Raymond has written a really good faq on what constitutes a good question and how to avoid asking bad ones. Take a look: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Newsreaders    

If at all possible it's best to use a newsreader (such as Microsoft's Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Opera, or 40Tude) to view and post messages to the newsgroups. The benefits are using a newsreader include:

  • Your posts will appear immediately.
  • If you post by mistake, you may be able to delete your posts.
  • You probably have enhanced searching abilities.
  • It's easier to determine the thread hierarchy.
  • Often posts just look better.
  • All attachments should be easily downloaded.

Setting up Opera's M2 newsreader: DigitalMars:d/archives/digitalmars/D/13050.html

Threaded View    

If you're using a newsreader such as Outlook, Thunderbird or 40Tude, and you've never tried "Threaded View", you don't know what you're missing. Unthreaded is a simple list of messages, but threaded view is an organized tree of messages.

How to go into threaded view:

(Thunderbird defaultly assumes all threads with the same subject line are in the same thread. If this annoys you, you can stop threading by subject.)

Disadvantages to the Web Interface    

There are some disadvantages to using the web interface:

  • If you post a message, it doesn't appear in the web interface immediately. Sometimes, people post three messages because they don't realize their first message was actually posted.
  • If you are making multiple replies under one of your posts, it is important that you first leave to different newsgroup, then return (reloading will not work). By not doing this you will likely cause threading to break.
  • If a message was posted in error, it can't be deleted by the poster (Most newsreader programs may allow the user to delete their own posts).
  • Some attachments appear encoded as Base64 or UUENCODE.
  • Sometimes the links in the thread at the bottom of the page of the WebNews interface take you to the wrong newsgroup. (The pnews interface doesn't even have a threaded view. Messages are listed in strict reverse chronological order.)
  • Sometimes the web interface mangles posts, e.g. by inserting line breaks that mess up the message, and by removing indentation.

Decoding Attachments    

D code for decoding attachments from the web interface:

Web tool for decoding base64 (limits maximal length to 256 characters)

More tricks for decoding UUEncoded attachments: NG:digitalmars.D.learn/2304, NG:digitalmars.D.learn/2316

Newsgroup Posts about the Newsgroup Interfaces    


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Edit text of this page (date of last change: August 31, 2010 15:15 (diff))