[Tutor] Re: Tutor digest, Vol 1 #1020 - 16 msgs

[Charlie Clark]

>I'm not sure it's worth trying.  *I'm* no Windows expert -- I'm not a
>Windows developer, I'm just a developer who, for business reasons, got stuck
>using Windows in '94.  As an end-user, I actually like it a lot; but as a
>developer, it drives me nuts. 
have to agree with you there. The dos box just isn't a shell :-((
Double-clicking is nice but OS/2 always did it better. On second thoughts I 
don't even like using windows as end user. Maybe the interface won a prize 
for obfuscation on one of the perl websites?

> A co-worker once explained it in terms that
>still ring true:  Windows developement is like wading through a boundless
>ocean that's a quarter of an inch deep.  
You might add that it is a treacle ocean.

>That is, it's endless but very
>shallow -- you can wait for years to get the "aha!" kind of unifying
>experience you eventually get on, say, Unix, but it never comes.  Instead
>it's the world's largest (outside of IBM, I guess <wink>) random collection
>of endlessly layered backward compatibility hacks.
Hey, back to the future! Isn't that what Python 2.4's supposed to be ;-) At 
least IBM do document most of their hacks.

>one way that does work -- but you never understand why.
>
>I hope Windows XP catches on big, so that we can finally have some hope of
>leaving behind the worst of the DOS/Win3.1/Win9x legacy.  Technologies like
>COM are really mondo cool; but it's hard to get to the point where you can
>appreciate them when you have to reboot the machine once an hour.
sigh, maybe not but having to ask Microsoft's permission to switch the 
machine kind of weighs against it. Will there ever be compulsory registration 
for Python based on serial numbers of the various kinds of Spam in your 
cupboard and will our Spam have to be officially approved and certified?

Whatever the weather I can do my Python development on an OS of my choice and 
know it will work on windows. Three cheers for Python.

Charlie