On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, Nadav Har'El wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 26, 2003, Eli Segal wrote about "Re: Software design document":
> > Just one thought ...
> > Why would anyone want users to leave windows ..
> >
> > I say, if someone is happy with his windows .. let him be
> > linux is alternative and that's thegood part
>
> The bigger issue that (I believe) is raised in that link I gave is that why
> should we, people who like Linux and develop for it, want to waste our time
> to help Windows users.
>
On the same accord we should not make sure our programs run on Solaris, or
other proprietary UNIX systems. Or even the BSDs.
As a developer, it is important for me that Windows users will be able to
use it as well. If it's a Gtk+-app and/or has a lot of UNIXisms in it,
then porting it to Windows may not be worthwhile. This is good and I
respect developers who choose that. But if it can be ported to Windows
without too much hassle (or at least just an initial one) then I don't see
a reason why not.
Asking a person to install Linux just to use your program is a big
request. It requires reformatting the hard-disk, or buying a new one and
from then on rebooting the machine to switch an OS. Many people will be
terrified of the concept of an entirely different operating system.
OTOH, if you tell them: you can download cygwin from there,
Perl/Python/Ruby/Tcl/whatever from there, the GIMP from there, etc. they
will be much more willing because it's just another program. (there are of
course "Aunt Tillie"-types who don't install anything on their computer).
After they experiment with it and with Shlomif's Own OSS, they may be less
reluctant to install Linux where all these things run much better.
> For example consider someone who loves LaTeX but writes in Word format to
> please other (Windows-using) people.
He should use DocBook like I do. ;-) If you are working in an environment
where most people use Word format and wish to modify each other's
documents, than you'll have to comply. That or teach them all LaTeX, which
can run very well on Windows as well.
> Or someone for whom postscript is most
> convenient but generates PDF anyway, because he believes Windows-users prefer
> it.
Why can PDF be less convenient than PostScript?
> Or some free software developer that spends (say) 10% of his development
> time tomake sure his program works under Windows, rather than spending that
> 10% on something really important to him (assuming this developer himself
> does not user Windows and is not planning to use it anytime soon).
>
I think these percentage calculations of time are deceptive. I believe I
spend most of my development time _thinking_ and I believe most good
developers follow suit. Out of the net time of actually sitting in front
of the computer, assuming that a 10% of the time (again, it varies from
project to project), could otherwise be spent on something else, is not
always true. If between release 1.2.0 and 1.4.0, I spent 10% of the time
making sure it runs on Windows, then it does not follow that without
supporting Windows, I would have spent 90% of the time, or would have
released it earlier.
Some projects have a Windows champion, who makes sure their final version
(or even nightly builds) compiles on Windows.
> This is obviously a very fanatic view of things, and I don't completely
> agree with it. But he does make a valid point.
>
The only point he is making is that he will not support a Windows port of
his software, even if it won't be very hard to maintain or he'll have a
champion there. It is a very childish point. If I had a project that was
only tested on Linux, and someone sent me a patch to get it to compile
with MSVC, I would have gladly accepted it and applied it.
Granted, Windows is very incompatible to UNIX (at least without cygwin,
Interix or another UNIX emulation layer), but maintaining a port can
still be relatively straightforward and there is no need to completely
ban it.
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
> --
> Nadav Har'El | Wednesday, Feb 26 2003, 24 Adar I 5763
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] |-----------------------------------------
> Phone:+972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |God created the world out of nothing, but
> http://nadav.harel.org.il |the nothingness still shows through.
>
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Shlomi Fish [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Home Page: http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/
There's no point in keeping an idea to yourself since there's a 10 to 1
chance that somebody already has it and will share it before you.
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