Beerconf

Beerconf is an unofficial name given to the frequent gatherings in the evenings at all Dconf conferences. It was given the name by Ethan Watson, noting how many of the participants drink beer while gathering to discuss D topics. These gatherings frequently happened in the "hang-out" place which was usually the hotel lobby where most participants were staying.

Online Beerconf

In June of 2020, when Dconf 2020 was supposed to happen, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a few people decided to create a virtual Beerconf to recreate the camaraderie, discussion, and general enjoyment the live Beerconf participants had every night after live Dconf. Using a freely available Jitsi online conference service, Beerconf June 2020 was the first online gathering of its kind in The D community.

Steven Schveighoffer and Iain Buclaw, two language core developers, are the hosts of Beerconf. After the first Beerconf, they decided that it would be a beneficial thing to hold every month. So every month, typically at the end of the month (but can be moved usually due to holidays), Beerconf is held for people to chat, enjoy our shared fascination with the language, and work through sometimes difficult problems that don't lend themselves well to text-based discussion.

The online group is generally started on a Saturday, and is left open for 48 hours to account for the disparate time zones of all the D community. Topics can be anything, and are not planned. Past topics include Beer (of course), core D development, D game development, using D for controlling car transmissions, future directions of the D language, projects people are working on, and many people do some work in D while on the conference. Language maintainers Walter Bright and Atila Neves, as well as Andrei Alexandrescu will generally join for a time as well.

Contrary to the name, there is no requirement to actually drink Beer or any alcoholic beverage during the conference. There is no requirement to participate either via audio or video, many people join in to listen and sometimes chat. In fact, the requirements are very very loose -- you need a computer and access to Jitsi.

Beerconf served as the base testbed for Dconf Online 2020, which was also run mostly over Jitsi.