Incoming from Aaron J. Seigo: > On June 7, 2004 09:03, Shawn wrote: > > I'm finally making the switch from my Windows desktop to a Linux desktop. > > �The one thing that's holding me back some is the development environment. > > the mind-set tends to be quite different when developing on UNIX and UNIX-like > platforms when compared to Windows. instead of monolithic tools that are the > beginning and the end (and often dictate your language and API), toolchains > made up of small purpose-built, API-agnostic tools are emphasized. instead of
I was going to mention something along these lines, but it's difficult to be taken seriously by a Windows developer when you suggest something like emacs for a development environment. However, try it sometime. I've been hacking perl and shell for years. emacs has a "mode" for both of them, and perl mode even warns you about syntax errors as you make them. Today I was checking code out of a CVS server. emacs has a point and click interface to version control. The stuff I was working on today was XML and SGML; both supported by emacs. You can point and click your way through C/C++ compiles and debuggers. The rule for Unix/Linux apps is do one thing but do it well. Pick a decent editor, configure it (actually, it probably already is) to understand the other tools you'll be using (version control, debugging, printing, compiling), and pretty soon you've got a far richer development environment than the monolithic tools you're used to. Best part is, that environment will work well with almost any project or language. You won't find yourself digging around for a new "tool" next week when you decide to try your hand at python or scheme or XHTML, or whatever else strikes your fancy. I like plain old emacs. You may prefer Xemacs. Others wonder why anyone would use anything but vi(m). They all work well in an X Window environment. After a few weeks at this, you'll start to wonder things like how you can use that editor with your email client too, then Usenet news. Then you notice that just about anything you can do at a command line can be done in the editor too. Everything you learn starts piling up and ganging up on all the problems you run into. Pretty soon, there's nothing it can't do for you. That's when you start gritting your teeth swearing that they'll get your editor when they pry it from your cold, dead hands. -- Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. (*) http://www.spots.ab.ca/~keeling - - _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
