Multithreaded I/O in the DMD compiler (DDJ article by Walter)

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Daniel Keep wrote:
> Warning: semi-rant ahead.  Feel free to ignore.  :)
[...]
> Windows is a pain in the arse, and there isn't a day that goes by where
> I don't wish I could get rid of it from my life.  But the fact is that
> it's STILL better than Linux.
> 
> Andrei said that Windows is for users, and unix is for programmers.
> That's fine; I'm a programmer!  But I'm also a user.  I shouldn't have
> to spend all day to work out how to do something in linux that's trivial
> in Windows.

What you don't realize is that you spend all day to work out how to do 
something in Windows that's trivial in Unix. And that "something" is 
writing computer programs. I agree that winamp, games, ..., are much 
more polished in Windows. I mean, it's a foregone conclusion. It's the 
core market of Windows!

Now here's the thing: mono-culturalism is worse than either Windows or 
Unix bigotry. If you know the OS, go ahead, rant all you want about it. 
But I have little consideration for rants against some OS from people 
who don't know it.

And the situation isn't symmetric, which is liable to raise an eyebrow. 
I only know two persons who know Unix and prefer Windows. One worked for 
Microsoft, the other loves every big American company and is in fact a 
Microsoft fan (nothing wrong with that). All others I know disliking 
Unix actually don't know it. On the other hand, I know plenty of 
programmers who know both Unix and Windows programming and can't bring 
themselves to think seriously about getting work done in Windows. I also 
know Unix zealots who have no idea about Windows, and their rants are 
pretty damaging (Richard Stallman only tried to use Word once and was 
unable to do anything with it - too many confusing menus and buttons... 
a sad case of monoculture.) Finally, programmers who only know Windows 
kind of just don't know better so they take it as a given without 
becoming fans and that's that.

> I'd almost be tempted to switch to Mac OSX if it weren't for the entire
> machine, hardware and software (sans BSD), driving me up the wall...
> 
>> As for programming specifically... I made a deliberate shift away from
>> Windows years ago because it's a nightmare to develop for (aside from
>> Visual Studio, which is a great debugging environment).  Best move I
>> ever made.
> 
> I don't really see this.  From the last several years of using Cygwin,
> I'm not sure what it is that would be markedly better.
> 
> I WANT to get off Windows.  But whatever I switch to would have to be
> better by a fair margin to offset the cost of re-learning how to do
> stuff.  And as far as I've been able to discern, Linux isn't it.

I guess it sort of depends what "it" is. I agree that getting Unix to 
install with drivers and all can be a bitch, even with Ubuntu. Even 
beyond installation, all OSs have annoying quirks that take getting used 
to. And for someone with the attitude "I'll give you this long to 
impress me" the initial hurdles can be a deal breaker.


Andrei