Declarative programming in D

Abstract:  When term "declarative programming" is used in context of imperative languages, it is most often associated with Domain-Specific Languages. However, it is a more general approach with essential value of separating meaningful description from boilerplate behavior. It is already widely used in D programs and won't be a revelation for any experienced D users.

This talk tries to somewhat generalize this approach and popularize it as common D paradigm, as well as speculate upon possible improvements to D reflection capabilities that can make it even more powerful.

Benefits:

• Define term "declarative programming" in context of this talk (and why it is applicable here)
• DSL: ctRegex and Pegged as famous examples. Most obvious example of benefits that declarative approach can give over straightforward imperative code.
• Generalize idea to any code generation based on concentrated input and description.
• Move as much useful information as possible into declarations: pros and cons over custom DSL approach.
• Overview of related D tool set, speculations about possible design patterns
• Reflection-based declarative approach: hibernated and vibe.http.rest as beneficial examples.
• Speculation: high level test coverage verification
• Speculation: why limit to declarations? Separating expression/statement reflection from AST proposal.
• Thoughts about existing issues.

Speaker Bio: Programming & open-source enthusiast. Contributor to several D projects, most notably vibe.d. D developer at Sociomantic Labs. One of Arch Linux Trusted Users.