Re: [Offtopic] observations about MSVC and win32 compilers

From: Tony Skinner (tskinner@GLOBALEYES.NET)
Date: 10/26/97


At 11:37 PM 10/25/97 -0700, you wrote:
>On Sat, 25 Oct 1997, Gary Barnett wrote:
>
>%Find In Files is a godsend.
>%Source Safe gives you real version control
>%Integrated debugging allows the program to automatically put you at the line
>%that crashed.
>
>Uhm, essentially: grep, RCS, and gdb, except with pretty interfaces
>and less power.  Excuse me if I don't burst with joy.
>
As noble as your efforts to support that of unix persist, I beg to differ.
With Windows being castrated at an un right pace, I must say that it's
simplistic interface can be quite intuitive as well as being less of a
burden when constantly typing grep statements to track down files.

>%The GNU project's goal is noble. I am happy that there exists a free method
>%of compiling real C programs for win32. But I can't see myself using it,
as I
>%would give up too much efficiency.
>
>Question: what efficiency would that be?  The efficiency of MSVC?  Last
>I checked, the side of the box for MSVC said it "required" 24mb of RAM.
>There's efficiency for you.  While we could certainly argue over what
>in particular is "efficient" for an invidividual programmer unendlessly,
>under most--if not all--circumstances, an understood command line
>interface is more efficient than a GUI, mouse-based one.  Note the word
>"understood."  If you don't know what you're doing, then it's certainly
>not going to offer any advantage to you.  On the other hand, if you
>understand a program that uses a graphical interface well-enough, then
>you'll probably use a lot of short-cut keys.
>
>Not for want of yet another UNIX vs. Windows thread, as that is hardly
>my point (whatever you're comfortable with is the best for you), but I
>have to wonder about the, "would give up too much efficiency," line.

The ability of an IDE to consume memory is by no judge of it's efficiency.
The efficiency in question is raised from the fact that under Unix you must
rely upon
the command line to find certain lines of code which the search criteria
where under
MSVC IDE you simply click an icon and conduct the search under ANY
directory with which you can point and click. Though key strokes counted
might be quite close in comparison to unix full directory names, the fact
still stands that in most cases the point-click approach can be handy, if
not refreshing from the dull typing.

Though I find your argument valid, I must decline to agree from experience
between the Unix environment as opposed to the intuitive MSVC interface
that Microsoft has laid forth. And yes, to bring an answer to the
forthcoming herring of Microsoft's known bloated ness, I agree with whole
heartedness. Microsoft IS known for neglecting efficiency in favor of user
kindness. The only question that remains is, does the interface, in the
long run, further my progress or hinder it?

Tony Skinner



>
>
>--
>Daniel Anton Koepke -:- dkoepke@california.com -:- [Nether]
>"Human language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes
> for bears to dance to when all the while we want to move the
> stars to pity." -- Flaubert
>
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