IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Show HN: Parin – A 2D game engine between raylib and Godot, written in Dlang

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Praise for the project
- “This is cool. Well done in the creation.” – doublerabbit
- “Kapendev: Parin is a 2D game engine I've been working on for about two years.” (announcement that drew positive reaction)

2. Appreciation for the D programming language
- “Always excited to see something done with Dlang. I still think that language is underrated.” – Ephraimd

3. Desire for better DMD support on modern macOS/Apple Silicon
- “DMD needs to work on modern Macs. I am about to have a chat with Claude over how I can make that happen at this point, I have a feeling it will involve the LLVM D compiler, some assembly witchcraft for Apple Silicon and maybe some sort of bootstrapping method.” – giancarlostoro

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

DMD-arm64 Builder

Summary

  • Automates building DMD for macOS Apple Silicon (ARM64) using LLVM and provides ready‑to‑use binaries via Homebrew.
  • Core value: eliminates the manual assembly‑witchcraft step, giving D developers a working DMD on modern Macs out of the box.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience D language developers using macOS M1/M2/M3
Core Feature CI pipeline that compiles DMD with LLVM for ARM64 and publishes Homebrew formulae
Tech Stack GitHub Actions, LLVM, DMD source, Homebrew Ruby formulae
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • HN commenter Giancarlostoro said “DMD needs to work on modern Macs… LLVM D compiler, some assembly witchcraft for Apple Silicon” – this project directly addresses that.
  • Enables discussion around D tooling and could become a canonical Homebrew tap for D.

Dlang-Apple Frameworks Bridge

Summary

  • Generates idiomatic D bindings from Apple framework headers (Cocoa, Metal, CoreGraphics, etc.) using clang‑to‑d.
  • Core value: lets D developers write native macOS/iOS apps in D without manually writing extern(C) bindings.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience D developers targeting macOS/iOS, game devs using Parin or other D engines
Core Feature Automatic binding generation + optional D‑idiomatic wrappers
Tech Stack clang, libclang, dmd, dub, SwiftPM (for testing)
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Addresses the need for better Mac support expressed by Giancarlostoro and others interested in D on Mac.
  • Could spark discussion on mixing D with SwiftUI or Metal, boosting D’s adoption on Apple platforms.

Mogo-Windows Compatibility Layer

Summary

  • Provides an open‑source runtime that translates Mogo code to LLVM IR and then compiles it to Windows PE executables, bypassing the need for Max proprietary components.
  • Core value: enables Mogo developers to run and distribute their code on Windows without relying on Max.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Mogo language enthusiasts and educators wanting Windows support
Core Feature Mogo-to-LLVM translation + Windows codegen
Tech Stack MLIR/LLVM, Mogo front‑end (or parser), MinGW-w64, CMake
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Giancarlostoro noted “Max is proprietary so I can only use a tiny fraction of Mogo on Windows”; this layer would unlock full Windows support.
  • Could become a community project that encourages cross‑platform Mogo adoption and generate HN discussion.

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