Re:Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]
by jfktrey on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @08:09PM
(#13701963)
It's funny you mention switching from Windows to MacOS for the command line tools. I booted up a pre-NeXT Mac (an iBook with OS9) the other day, and was blown away to learn that there is no terminal at all! How quickly things changed after that.
Re:Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]
by ChuckMcM on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @08:23PM
(#13702050)
Absolutely. My background was that I was Sun for years and on a "workstation" the most common window open for a software developer was an xterm not some IDE. That said, for people who "grew up" knowing nothing but visual studio and delphi, telling them that everything they are trying to do is easily done in the command line doesn't resonate.
Re:Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]
by bitcrazed on Thursday February 23, 2017 @08:58PM
(#13720182)
Even though I am a huge command-line fan, I am not sure that "everything they are trying to do [in an IDE] is easily done in the command line" is entirely true ;)
While one can do at least as much, if not more, via a variety of command-line tools, the integrated build & debug workflow of a good IDE is invaluable to many. Esp. for those for whom learning a multitude of command-line tools, and syntaxes to drive gdb, profilers, etc. as a little costly/cumbersome.
Re:Bash and Windows Subsystem for Linux Demo [video]
by ajdlinux on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @08:31PM
(#13702086)
ISTR from my days when I was a primary school kid playing around with my grandmother's Mac running System 7 that there were some (fairly lame) third party tools that attempted to implement a DOS-style CLI.
People of a certain age remembered well the power and simplicity of using DOS and its "console" to effectively develop code and debug, even without typing 'win' to get into "GUI mode".
But at this event a very senior engineer/architect in the Windows group (no longer with Microsoft) responded to my question of command line support with a very snarky response which was something along the lines of "It is called Windows not relic from the 70's so no, we really don't care if you can't use it like a time sharing system any more." And that was the way it was, anything you could do on the command line you could do in a GUI window with radio buttons and various text boxes.
And what was why I switched to MacOS as my daily driver because my personal style had me so much more productive in "terminal" mode than in "gui" mode, I preferred it.
Now you have Microsoft investing real time and effort to create credible command line type tools in their system and it is a remarkably good thing. I use WLS every day and its getting better and better. I have suggested they implement a local network service equivalent of the USB over Ethernet service so that you can easily share USB devices between the Windows side and the Linux side, the up coming visual fixes will address many of the minor annoyances. That is a really huge shift for Microsoft.