hasen

Windows sucks! really, it sucks for development.

ok, let me rephrase that: windows sucks for serious development.

This comes down to the windows culture: programs are designed for humans who only use the application occasionally to get something done.

Consider this scenario: I have a large project, I recieve a bug report about a bug in a previous version of the project. The project is actually comprised of several sub-projects.

Here’s what I need to do before I even start examining the bug or doing anything:

• Checkout the proper version of each sub-project from the repository
• Build sub-projects in the correct order (of dependancy).

Now, in a linux environment, where I’m using git and automake, I would simply checkout the proper branch (for the version) and run make.

In the worst case scenario where there’s nothing linking the project at the make level, I will have a 6 line script that builds them in the correct order.

very simple command line setup.

Now, what if I’m on windows?

Well, chances are, windows users won’t be using git or make or anything “archaic” like that. They will have visual tools where each action takes about 10 clicks or so to complete.

So, what do we do?

Well, fire up the “visual” application that connects to the central repository and checkout the specific branch of each project one at a time, where the checkout process includes:

• opening the project from a list of project
• going through menus/submenues to select the proper branch for the version we need (might require looking up the dependency list in a separate document/application)
• checking out that version (usually a single button, or a menu item)
• wait for the progress bar to fill up

Repeat that process about 5 or 6 times (depending on how many sub-projects you have).

I kid you not, this is the actual process required with some certain “commercial” “enterprise-class” tools for “source configuration management” (I can’t spell out its name though).

Now, time to build:

After you’ve checked them all out, you have to open up your fancy IDE; usually that would be visual studio (fortunately, this one I can name).

Again, open up each project in the correct order and build it separately.

This is a really tedious process when you have to do it 3-5 times a day.

Compare this to: git checkout version_branch && make

I will admit, the windows process is easier for newbies, and is bareable if you only do it once a month or so. But for serious development, this process is just unacceptable.

Now, theoretically, you can automate this process in windows using some scripts; but here’s the catch: the tools are NOT designed for scripting; yes, most of them have some kind of a command line interface, but it’s not very well tailored towards time-saving scripting magic.

And, suppose you do manage to script that operation, what about all the other operations that you need to do for serious development? All the tool-chain in windows is centered around gui apps with lots of menus and buttons and forms that must be filled.

So, you can still script that, but, what’s the point? If you’re gonna go command-line, go command-line for real and start using linux.

That’s what I did, and that’s why I really switched to linux.

When I started developing a real project in windows, I was browsing for files in windows explorer!! oh the horror! After a while I got really tired, and started looking for alternatives. The best thing you can find on windows is xyplorer (it’s not free, but it’s the only good option I could find).

Little by little I kept ditching all the default windows tools and switching to better tools: console2 for a terminal (the one and only free terminal emulator on windows), winscp for ssh file upload (windows doesn’t even have an ssh tool, for God’s sake!!!), I started using git (msysgit) for source code management, and got used to typing ls at the command line :)

One might say: but Linux doesn’t have a decent IDE!!!

Well my friend, Linux is an IDE

Linux, (or rather, Unix, (which GNU/Linux happens to be a clone of)) is an integrated development environment.