NOTE: The survey is closed. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Strange things are afoot at the D Language Foundation. Odd noises and varicolored lights have been reported emanating from the cellar into the wee hours of the morning. Foundation members have been sighted, stumbling dazed and bleary-eyed in and out of the front door, arms full of mysterious black boxes. Neighbors whisper, and rumor has it that the spawn of so much secretive activity is only one arcane ritual away from seeing the light of day.

How right they are! For the past few weeks, the initiate Sebastian Wilzbach has devoted his energies to studying the Book of Modern Arcana in preparation for the ritual known as the State of D 2018 Survey. With feedback from those already steeped in the Dark arts, he has been refining the incantations of the ritual so that they prove most effective. Now, at long last, his preparations are complete and the ritual has been unleashed upon the world!

Upon the D community anyway.

And now it’s on you. This is your chance to turn your praise, complaints, and nitpicks into action. By participating in the State of D survey, you’ll be providing guidance to the D Language Foundation to help identify both short and long-term goals for the future development of D and its ecosystem.

A handful of initiatives are already coming together in the cellar. You’ll be able to read about them in more detail here as they are announced in the coming days, weeks, and months. The 2018 H1 document, presenting an overview of the current focus, will be announced soon. This survey will help build on existing plans, fill in the details of the general goals, and identify any course corrections that are necessary for 2018 H2 and beyond.

The Foundation is eager to address the issues that matter most to the community. Members frequently make their thoughts known in the forums, but the conversations can be long, sprawling, wandering, and hard to follow. The State of D Survey will allow the core team to see at a glance what’s going right and what’s not, and to focus their attention where it’s needed most. It could take 15 minutes or more of your time to complete, depending on the amount of thought you put into your answers. If you care about the D programming language, it’s well worth every minute.

We’ll leave the survey open for at least two weeks. A short while after it closes, we’ll publish the results here. From then on, the blog will cover what’s happening in response, providing updates on progress at reasonable intervals. Then next year we’ll do it all again.

Remember, D is a community-driven language, but not everyone is able to contribute as much as they would like. Whether you’re a frequent contributor or just getting started writing D programs, this is your chance to help make D an even better language than it is today.

Make your opinion count and take the survey!