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digitalmars.D - Web Programming in D

reply Web Dev <webdev gmail.com> writes:
The D language is among the languages ​​that I have been 
interested in for a long time, and it is pleasing to see that 
there is an active community by following the forum for a while.

As part of my job, I usually develop web software. There have 
been projects where I have used Python, PHP and recently Go for 
the backend.

However, I recently thought of using the D language in web 
projects as well. When I look at the frameworks developed on the 
web, I see Hunt and Vibe.D options.

I think Hunt is no longer in development but Vibe.D continues to 
be developed.

Has anyone done a web project with Vibe.D before? What are the 
positive and negative aspects? Does it make sense to use the D 
language on the web for now?
Jun 21 2023
next sibling parent reply Andrew <andrewlalisofficial gmail.com> writes:
On Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 06:15:47 UTC, Web Dev wrote:

 The D language is among the languages ​​that I have been 
 interested in for a long time, and it is pleasing to see that 
 there is an active community by following the forum for a while.

 As part of my job, I usually develop web software. There have 
 been projects where I have used Python, PHP and recently Go for 
 the backend.

 However, I recently thought of using the D language in web 
 projects as well. When I look at the frameworks developed on 
 the web, I see Hunt and Vibe.D options.

 I think Hunt is no longer in development but Vibe.D continues 
 to be developed.

 Has anyone done a web project with Vibe.D before? What are the 
 positive and negative aspects? Does it make sense to use the D 
 language on the web for now?


As someone whose day job involves web development in Python and 
Java, at the current state-of-the-art for D web development 
libraries, I would probably not choose D for a web project; I say 
this even as someone who's developed their own HTTP server 
([handy-httpd](https://github.com/andrewlalis/handy-httpd)).

For hobbyist stuff, yeah, go right ahead. But if you're planning 
on investing time and money into a product, it just makes sense 
to go with something that has a lot more support, better 
documentation, better tooling, and so on. And at the moment, that 
would be Python + FastAPI, PHP + Laravel, Java + Spring, etc; I 
don't see any D library that is yet comparable to any of the 
popular language/framework combos.

The issue is that in order to make D competitive in web 
programming, with the most bleeding-edge frameworks, we need a 
coordinated effort by tens or hundreds of contributors, and I 
just don't think that'll happen unless something spectacular 
happens in the coming months as the D language foundation 
reorganizes stuff.
Jun 22 2023
parent reply Dejan Lekic <dejan.lekic gmail.com> writes:
On Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 08:04:03 UTC, Andrew wrote:

 The issue is that in order to make D competitive in web 
 programming, with the most bleeding-edge frameworks, we need a 
 coordinated effort by tens or hundreds of contributors, and I 
 just don't think that'll happen unless something spectacular 
 happens in the coming months as the D language foundation 
 reorganizes stuff.


I have been talking on IRC about this for decades... D community 
really needs working groups (under DLF umbrella preferably) in 
which developers with the same goal(s) participate in design and 
development of robust, well-tested and rock-solid packages. D 
community is heavily dispersed, each individual working on own 
tiny projects. Most popular "thing" nowadays are -betterC 
runtimes - there are probably 10+ of them in the development by 
different individuals. - I firmly believe, have they been 
organised in a working group their job would have been done by 
now...
Apr 28
next sibling parent Sergey <kornburn yandex.ru> writes:
On Monday, 28 April 2025 at 12:57:22 UTC, Dejan Lekic wrote:

 I firmly believe, have they been organised in a working group 
 their job would have been done by now...


Most probably not
Because of “nature” of D - very high flexibility leads to very 
high variance in requirements/ideas of what is good/bad
Apr 28
prev sibling parent Lance Bachmeier <no spam.net> writes:
On Monday, 28 April 2025 at 12:57:22 UTC, Dejan Lekic wrote:

 On Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 08:04:03 UTC, Andrew wrote:

 The issue is that in order to make D competitive in web 
 programming, with the most bleeding-edge frameworks, we need a 
 coordinated effort by tens or hundreds of contributors, and I 
 just don't think that'll happen unless something spectacular 
 happens in the coming months as the D language foundation 
 reorganizes stuff.


 I have been talking on IRC about this for decades... D 
 community really needs working groups (under DLF umbrella 
 preferably) in which developers with the same goal(s) 
 participate in design and development of robust, well-tested 
 and rock-solid packages. D community is heavily dispersed, each 
 individual working on own tiny projects. Most popular "thing" 
 nowadays are -betterC runtimes - there are probably 10+ of them 
 in the development by different individuals. - I firmly 
 believe, have they been organised in a working group their job 
 would have been done by now...


In the absence of a company like Google or Microsoft suddenly 
deciding they want D to be successful in the web space, there's 
absolutely no chance D will ever be a player in commercial web 
development. It's simply a dead end in 2025. There are other 
areas where D can be strong, but not commercial web development.
Apr 28
prev sibling next sibling parent Sergey <kornburn yandex.ru> writes:
On Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 06:15:47 UTC, Web Dev wrote:

 I think Hunt is no longer in development but Vibe.D continues 
 to be developed.


It seems that Hunt is dead yes.


 Has anyone done a web project with Vibe.D before? What are the 
 positive and negative aspects?


Some people are using D for web projects.
For example this one looks nice: https://myst.rs/

Mostly you have 2 frameworks with many features:
* Vibe.d
* Arsd CGI

Vibe has many integrations with different packages (oauth, 
oneapi, graphql).
CGI is the fastest (at least in benchmarks).

If you need simpler solution (just a server):
* handy
* serverino
* lighttp (not maintained, but still worked)


 Does it make sense to use the D language on the web for now?


Like there is no any sense to use D in general, not specifically 
in web.
But if you like D, you can use it for web as well.

For production I think it is save to choose Go.

I think current level of D frameworks won't provide any "killer 
features" compare to other popular solutions and have more cons 
(lack of users, documentation, adoption for deployment, etc) than 
pros (D is fun and great for your hobby project).

But you can try it for something simple and see if it works for 
you :)
Feb 06 2024
prev sibling next sibling parent Jean-Philippe <davidjenkins7473 gmail.com> writes:
On Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 06:15:47 UTC, Web Dev wrote:

 The D language is among the languages ​​that I have been 
 interested in for a long time, and it is pleasing to see that 
 there is an active community by following the forum for a while.

 As part of my job, I usually develop web software. There have 
 been projects where I have used Python, PHP and recently Go for 
 the backend.

 However, I recently thought of using the D language in web 
 projects as well. When I look at the frameworks developed on 
 the web, I see Hunt and Vibe.D options.

 I think Hunt is no longer in development but Vibe.D continues 
 to be developed.

 Has anyone done a web project with Vibe.D before? What are the 
 positive and negative aspects? Does it make sense to use the D 
 language on the web for now?


Vibe.D is active and good for fast web apps, but the D ecosystem 
is smaller, so expect less support compared to more popular 
languages.
Apr 26
prev sibling parent Jean-Philippe <davidjenkins7473 gmail.com> writes:
On Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 06:15:47 UTC, Web Dev wrote:

 The D language is among the languages ​​that I have been 
 interested in for a long time, and it is pleasing to see that 
 there is an active community by following the forum for a while.

 As part of my job, I usually develop web software. There have 
 been projects where I have used Python, PHP and recently Go for 
 the backend.

 However, I recently thought of using the D language in web 
 projects as well. When I look at the frameworks developed on 
 the web, I see Hunt and Vibe.D options.

 I think Hunt is no longer in development but Vibe.D continues 
 to be developed.

 Has anyone done a web project with Vibe.D before? What are the 
 positive and negative aspects? Does it make sense to use the D 
 language on the web for now?


Vibe.D offers powerful features like asynchronous I/O for web 
development, though its smaller community and resources might 
present a challenge. If you're exploring web development with D, 
it's worth trying, but be ready for some learning. If you're 
looking to create a professional website, this 
service[https://mycompanysite.com/services/website-design/] can 
help you design and develop a robust platform.
Apr 28