[Gnu-arch-users] Re: Native windows support

[zander]

On Sat, Oct 18, 2003 at 02:20:05PM -0700, Tom Lord wrote:
> What you describe is a shop with these characteristics:
> 
>       *) some programmers working on unix-family platforms
>         *) some programmers working on msft-line platforms
>         *) a shared line of development between the two

This is quite common, yes.

> Developers specializing in work on msft platforms are likely to be
> already trained and ready to go using msft platform vc tools, horrid
> though those tools may be.
> 
> Supposing that the unix developers would like to work with arch,

A shop does not leave those kind of decisions to the developers; since
this kind of thing really is a management thing. Think; "software costs
money" here.  Thats the thought pattern a manager will have.

> then 
> the shop you describe has a problem to solve:  how to bridge between,
> say, "visual source [un]safe" and arch.

Well; I still hope I can convince my manager that that will work; and
the only reason I am quite optimistic about it is because the linux
developers are all Java developers and the Ms developers are all using
VB.
So its not _that_ much of a problem. But it was made VERY clear that one
solution should be chosen for all developers. Period.
If the situation was that one of our java developers was using Windows
(even from time to time) the case would be a hell of a lot harder to make.
Remember that a manager will not believe me when I say they work together
very well; technical solutions tying two systems together have failed
so many times in the past there is hardly any manager that will swallow
that argument without a lot of distaste left...

> You might reply saying "Yes, but I want the msft developers to have
> all the benefits of arch," to which there are three replies:
> 
>   1) Your company will be more competitive in the labor market if you
>      let the msft developers stick to things like "visual source
>      [un]safe".

True; although the 'un' is there for a reason :-)  I won't use VSS for
anything more then 10 to 50 files.

>   2) Now you are beginning to understand why killing msft platforms is
>      ultimately good for technology consumers:   the costs of making
>      everything work well on both unix-family and msft-line platforms 
>      tends not to fall well below the demand and the cost of
>      developing good and lasting solutions on unix-family is
>      distinctly lower.

Ehm; I believe in getting the right tool for the job; and hence I don't
want to move VB programmers to unix.
However much you would like Windows to go; its not going to happen for
quite some time.

>   3) I hear that Common Lisp provides nice file system abstractions
>      that work across platforms.   It could be an interesting exercise
>      to try to make a CL port of arch.
Having a java one is probably easier; as there is a java library present
that implements most GNU tools alread (in java).
Its in the jsh project..

-- 
Thomas Zander

pgpI3syJ7YK3A.pgp
Description: PGP signature