write simple articles to promote Nim

[ringabout]

We should share our knowledge to make Nim popular. Let's write some articles to promote Nim.

Standard

• Simple
• Short
• Expressive

Introduce a simple proc or styles or experience and everything related to Nim.

Examples:
https://dev.to/xflywind/how-to-contribute-to-nim-language-4ad8
https://dev.to/xflywind/awesome-nim-2p43
https://dev.to/xflywind/how-to-use-testament-in-nim-1l0h

[ringabout]

The more articles, the more chances people happen to meet Nim language.

[ringabout]

I use dev.to, but maybe Nim community could provide a better URL site to store these just-so-so articles. Or Nim official does something like Nim weekly.

[ringabout]

We could collect what others do and things to be share in the Nim forum/Github discussion weekly, polish and publish them by Nim community or Official.

[timotheecour]

polishing is important; a bad article (for whatever reasons, grammar is just 1 aspect) can do more harm than good. Ideally these are linked to a version controlled git repo / 1 PR away to improve them.

There's already https://nim-lang.org/blog.html which I'm sure most people read, but you could argue it's not frequent enough (but writing takes time, in particular if it's time taken away from improving the language).

weekly summary has been discussed at times (eg https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1536 has some good discussion / links), but it crucially needs committed maintainers otherwise it can die off (eg: as did "this week in D", refs https://forum.dlang.org/thread/[email protected], which had a long hiatus before it got revived)

links

in D, http://dpldocs.info/this-week-in-d/Blog.html
ideally, googling for this week in nim should point to something other than an obscure play, lol... https://www.etlandfill.com/2015/03/this-week-in-nim-mash-up-special.html

[timotheecour]

I also like language comparisons (ideally, objective and also to be useful as a translation guide), eg:

• D vs nim: https://github.com/timotheecour/D_vs_nim (that's how i started learning nim, by writing up this doc to compare it to D)
• https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/wiki/Nim-for-Python-Programmers
• https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/wiki/Nim-for-Java-programmers
• https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/wiki/Nim-for-TypeScript-Programmers#table-of-contents
• https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/wiki/Nim-for-C-programmers

Note that the Nim wiki has a lot of good resources already but they're hopelessly not very discoverable; ideally there should be more cross references between https://nim-lang.github.io/Nim/lib.html and articles from the wiki

(looks like wiki is still getting updates, eg just found http://ssalewski.de/nimprogramming.html from 2020)

[ringabout]

I agree I suggest Nim Official publish these same contents in articles and reference.
Every comparison wiki deserve a article to repeat the same contents.

[ringabout]

write a simple article to introduce wrap const char* in the Nim language
https://dev.to/xflywind/wrap-const-char-in-the-nim-language-53no

[timotheecour]

Just read it, article looks good; one question though: if it's intended for people that already know nim and have this specific problem, it makes sense; if it's intended for "marketing nim", I'm' curious whether this could scare away people (eg, because language X can do it easier in this case) more than attract them.

[ringabout]

If you search the article within a week or a month on google, you will find fewer new articles regarding Nim language. People need to listen to the name of this language, then they could be interested in this language. Better than doing nothing.
I think Nim weekly may be a better solution though #490 (comment)

[timotheecour]

Another useful kind of material is showing side by side comparisons of some non-trivial but small sample code written in language X vs nim, and comparing these metrics:

• compile time
• running time (debug and optimized)
• LOC or number of tokens as proxy for "complexity"

ideally:

• each sample code corresponds to 1 task (from varying domains, eg data processing, graphics, math, web server, databases)
• the nim code is idiomatic
• the comparison is fair (code in language X is also idiomatic)
• it should not be cherry-picked (selecting samples where nim performs better is not objective)
• the benchmarks (CT, RT, LOC) are easy to re-run

There should already be lots of resources along those lines that could be referenced.

That could be a good community effort that doesn't require too much nim expertise to contribute to.

links

• rosetta code could be linked but isn't really what I'm thinking of
• TODO: show more such links

[ringabout]

Good idea!

[ringabout]

Ideally, we could write an article for every code sample comparison. Publish them on the Nim forum, Reddit and Hacker news.

[juancarlospaco]

Another alternative

V first "just testing" stream, 15 ~ 25 people, just VS Code, today

• Zig lang also streams on Twitch with more viewers than V.
• Idris also used to stream but not seen it in a loooong time.
• NimConf videos all have > 1000 views https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nimconf
• Platform does not matter, Restream forwards to all platforms automatically, mirrored on Youtube.

I think that people is moving from written media to video media, I dont know if good or bad but thats the reality,
whatever your efforts are on written media would be more far reaching on video media format.

Idea

Maybe the Nim community can create a unofficial "Community NimConf", at least once a year, then increase frequency,
make and collect exclusive videos until they reach certain threshold of total combined duration,
free format "talk whatever about Nim", does not have to be long (>=1 minute is ok), is important that content is exclusive,
you can add "BRB", "starting soon", etc intermission videos to extend more the duration,
and publish them as "live premieres" (exclusive pre-recorded content that mimics live, with live chat).

Need multiple authors sending videos. Some kind of "coordinators" may be needed. (I can help)

[ringabout]

cool!

[ringabout]

Nim audio or video streaming is great!

[juancarlospaco]

Example 2 minute video (Python), something like this but Nim.

[ringabout]

These are win-win for Nim library authors and Nim language(If platform attracts enough users).

[juancarlospaco]

Making 1 or 2 minute videos can be posted on multiple platforms

TikTok

• MP4
• 1 minute max
• Can upload from web.

Twitter

• 2 minutes max
• MP4 ???.
• Can upload from web.

Twitch

• No relevant limitations.
• Can upload from web.

Youtube

• No relevant limitations.
• Can upload from web.