View source for Programming in D for Ruby Programmers

This page is under community development.

In the meantime, you may find the following links of interest as a Ruby programmer:

*[http://hawkins.io/2015/04/excited-about-d/ Ruby Programmer shares his excitement about D]
*[http://bit.ly/1FcMtMm forum discussion of post]
*[http://bit.ly/1aHqBMg Jacob Carlborg writes on embedding Ruby in a D application]
*[https://rounin.livejournal.com/24639.html David Oftedal writes on Project Euler problem 61: from Ruby to D]
*[https://www.google.de/search?q=ruby&domains=dlang.org&sourceid=google-search&sitesearch=forum.dlang.org&gws_rd=cr&ei=fT0kVdbAD8H6sAHFrYDwBQ#q=ruby+site:forum.dlang.org&domains=dlang.org&start=10 forum posts on Ruby]
*[https://wiki.dlang.org/Call_D_from_Ruby_using_FFI Call D Functions Using Ruby FFI]

== Adding methods to existing classes / UFCS ==

In Ruby, it's possible to add methods to existing classes, even builtin ones:

<source lang="ruby">
class String
    def underline
        puts self
        puts "=" * self.length
    end
end

"Hello, world!".underline

# prints:
# Hello, world!
# =============
</source>

Because it uses a static compilation model, it's not possible to do exactly the same in D. However, D allows calling a free function as if it were a method, which mostly has the same effect from a caller's point of view, and has the additional advantage of not polluting the type's namespace:

<source lang="D">
void underline(string s) {
    import std.stdio : writeln;
    import std.range : repeat;
    writeln(s);
    writeln('='.repeat(s.length));
}
 
void main() {
    "Hello, world!".underline();
}
</source>

[[Category:Languages versus D]]