On Sun, 2011-05-08 at 23:52 -0700, Jonathan M Davis wrote: [ . . . ] > I could look at writing an article on moving from std.date to std.datetime, I > suppose. We already have an article contest going, and it would make sense to > put such an article on the site.
I suspect many people would be happy if you did do this, but I was thinking more copy and paste the material into a wiki page and then let everyone who has knowledge/interest help refine it. > I don't really have anywhere online that I can post anything myself though, > let alone links to whatever newsgroup posts might be useful for understanding > std.datetime. If there isn't a D/Phobos wiki then now is the time for Those in Authority, to make one so that this sort of material can go up there and be "crowd edited". > I would have hoped that the documentation in std.datetime would have been > sufficient, but either it isn't and/or it's just too overwhelming for some > folks, given some of the things that have been posted. There haven't been a > lot of questions about it though since it got into Phobos, so either a fair > number of people are understanding it well enough, or they aren't using it. I'd put it another way. For someone coming new to using D dates and times, as long as they are told in no uncertain terms not to use std.date but to use std.datetime then I am fairly sure the documentation is good and complete. It was for me and what I needed. Though I do find the indexing of the functions by signature something of a turn off as the signatures look so ugly and frightening. The problem here is though people who are D knowledgeable and have used std.date. These people are in need of an incremental update so as to help evolve their current knowledge to the new knowledge. Definitely analogous to incremental backups. If people are force to take their current knowledge and the new knowledge and do the diffs, interpolations and extrapolations themselves, then they see this as a barrier, sometimes of mountainous rather than molehillish proportions. If these people are offered a "diff" route from old to new, it turns the barrier into a bit of a pimple, something that can be squeezed out of existence quickly. Updating documents definitely smooth updating. > Part of the problem with better explaining std.datetime though is that it's > pretty much all in the documentation, so it's not generally clear what I > should be explaining further without people asking specific questions. Definitely, questions are indicators to lines of reasoning that need explanation. Without these questions then it is nigh on impossible to guess what material to offer. Another reason for a wiki that everyone can write to. Questions can be asked, answered, referred to, refined, etc. Email is great for the initial question and initial short answer, it is not a good medium for knowledge! -- Russel. ============================================================================= Dr Russel Winder t: +44 20 7585 2200 voip: sip:[email protected] 41 Buckmaster Road m: +44 7770 465 077 xmpp: [email protected] London SW11 1EN, UK w: www.russel.org.uk skype: russel_winder
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