[Gloucs] Windows survival [was: Yesterday's meeting]

[David Corking]

On 1/31/06, Mick Brooks <michael.brooks at physics.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
> > On 1/28/06, David Corking <lists at dcorking.com> wrote:
> >> Did you choose an editor yet?
>
> Oh, I didn't see this message - no, I don't seem to have it.
> Could you resend?

Odd - this didn't make it to the list (according to the archive)  Here
is is again:-

Date: Jan 28, 2006 11:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Gloucs] Windows survival [was: Yesterday's meeting]

Hi Mick - glad you are making progress.

On 1/28/06, Mick Brooks <michael.brooks at physics.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
>Copying or moving files is a pain: I want
> to type the destination
> directory (with a little help from tab-completion), not navigate another
> explorer window through
> a hierarchy and drag stuff around

Typing is good, but here in Linux I often drag and drop with
Konqueror, so I may not be your best adviser.  All the same, if you
don't want Cygwin, I know that there exist (but can't remember the
names of ) more lightweight distributions of unix shells for Windows,
such as bash csh and ksh.  The FSF used to ship a Windows bundle of
bash, fileutils and so forth, and maybe still do, but there are other
distros too.

Perl and Python compiled directly against Windows libraries, such as
the ActiveState versions, might feel more native and still give you
the ability to type what you need.

If you are an Emacs-weenie like I am, you probably like its built-in
dired file manager.  Both Cygwin GNU Emacs and NTemacs are built from
the GNU Emacs source tree.   I can't remember if tab-completion works
in the NTemacs flavour (it does in the Cygwin) - but it is a quick
download and easy install to find out.

If you want to stay totally native, Vista will apparently come with a
new command line shell and scripting language from Redmond (previews
no doubt on MSDN) and there is also 4NT.  I have tried neither.  I bet
they don't like forward slashes.  And what was Cutler thinking when he
put spaces in "Program Files" and "My Documents"?   With one-off
commands I can never remember whether to escape the space or quote the
entire string.  One day that will get me, or a programmer on my
project, in big trouble.

> I was wondering about Cygwin: for a project that has both a native
> windows version and
> one available through Cygwin, what are the pros/cons of the two
> approaches?

I can't put this in a nutshell - as I haven't hammered at the issue
hard, but here are some observations:
One will be tested against some other programs in the Cygwin
distribution, the other won't.  One may have a networkable X GUI, the
other may call the Windows GDI directly.  In one the 'unix-only'
features (like the GNU Emacs toolbar) will work, in the other you may
get to see 'Windows-only' features.
One you can add to your Cygwin install with a click, and get automatic
updates, the other you will have to download and maintain separately.

> I'm
> trying(!) to keep an open mind and to give Windows a fair go, so don't
> want to fall into using
> Cygwin for everything, so that it becomes a pretend Linux, too early.

Cygwin is mature enough that it has become a real unix/linux, not pretend.

My opinionated pedantry aside, by giving Windows a fair go, do you
mean that you don't want your code to depend on cygwin libraries,  or
do you mean that you would prefer to use the built-in Windows desktop
tools for your own use, rather than use Cygwin tools?

Did you choose an editor yet?  I once saw a team of big-five
consultants try to get by with Notepad (now that really is native),
but the real professionals that don't use vim or Emacs buy something
called slickedit to plug into visual studio or eclipse (giving Windows
as fair a go as that surely is off-topic for this list - so I am
ducking for flamethrowers.)

Best, David
--
David Corking
Principal, Corking Project
"Total Project Management for your supply chain technology"
Mail: dcorking at dcorking.com Tel: +44-7863-120641 Fax: +44-7863-440993
http://wireless.ecademy.com/user/davidcorking