5 ms·

Try setting up rails dev on a windows environment and get back to me.

rhizome 10y ago
I did until 3.2. The only real problem was native extensions, and many gem developers provided win32 bins for those things if they support win32 at all. Granted, I personally wasn't (...) God's gift to clean code, but I could certainly work with anything other people (say, on IRC) were working with and talking about.
Retr0spectrum 10y ago
I think the majority of webdev tools are pretty tedious to set up on Windows without cygwin etc.
- Marazan 10y ago
  Flask is no problem, Django is child's play to setup.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - true_religion 10y ago
    I feel like that's because someone put a lot of time and effort into making Python's core library play nice on Windows, and Pythonistas tend to interact with the OS/network only through core library functions. To contrast, Elixir runs on Windows. However, it may be hard to get all your projects up and running due to various baked in concerns where they were written to support Unix-like systems only.
- schwarrrtz 10y ago
  Node is a one click install on Windows, no cygwin required.
  - mikewhy 10y ago
    True, until you want to build native modules. Then you need Python and parts of Visual Studio
    - joshmanders 10y ago
      So? If I want to build native modules on Linux or OS X I still need Python and other build tools. It's not fool proof on any OS.
- takno 10y ago
  Never had any significant issues with Java stuff, or php for that matter
jamesgeck0 10y ago
Historically, Ruby in general on Windows has not been awesome. But it's not going to matter when the Windows Subsystem for Linux hits stable in a few months. http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/03/ubuntu-on-windows.html http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/03/ubuntu-on-windows.htm...
- Ericson2314 10y ago
  I think that might be a bit too sandboxed for your needs.
  - rhizome 10y ago
    It doesn't really matter anymore. It's been conventional wisdom for years to develop in a Linux VM if you have to use Windows otherwise. Unless that turns out to be more complex that the Windows Linux subsystem, I can't see VMs becoming an also-ran.
    - Ericson2314 10y ago
      If a Linux VM is fine for deployment, well then that specific component doesn't really need or use Windows very much does it. (That all unixy things need to put in VMs on a host running Windows is a very different constraint.) If it's important to deploy as a Windows process, then the Windows Linux subsystem is not much better than a VM. Point is, its no substitute for a (better) MSYS2/Cygwin.
      - rhizome 10y ago
        I think I understand your point, and it's been a while since my MCSE expired, but unless Cygwin has improved a lot I would estimate a VM wrapped by Windows would be much easier to manage and admin. Now if you're saying that the webapp itself would be required to be a Windows process, there's really no way around that. But as I implied elsewhere, the biggest stumbler for Rails on Windows has always been the lack of a compiler. Whether you compensate for that by installing a subsystem with that capability or by using a VM with the capability is largely a local problem to the company.
xraystyle 10y ago
How is this relevant, exactly? Ruby was written on and designed to run on *NIX OS's, as is most of the software commonly found in webapps, because it all runs on Linux servers. I'm sure it'd be a pain in the ass to get MS Paint to run on Debian, too.
- kefka 10y ago
  MS paint on Linux is easy.I double click on paint.exe and it runs. And I have WINE to thank for that layer of compatibility.
  - JustSomeNobody 10y ago
    You realize it is that easy for you because it was a pain in the bottom for someone else, yes?
    - askl56 10y ago
      Isn't that the esssence of programming?
stephenhuey 10y ago
I've done that over the years and I used to answer questions on the RailsInstaller list, and yes, at times it was harder than at other times. I'm expecting it to be easier than ever thanks to Microsoft's recent announcement to support running Bash as a full-fledged citizen on Windows: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBashShellAndUsermodeUbuntuLinuxBinariesOnWindows10.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBashShellAndUs...
MrBra 10y ago
I don't know how long ago you tried it last time, but recently this has got much better. You surely could find some gotchas here and there, but it's not as much frustrating as it was before.
jdiscar 10y ago
The rails stack isn't designed for Windows, why should they waste dev cycles trying to support it? In any case, I do a fair amount of webdev on my windows gaming computer (don't want to mix work and side projects), VMs are so easy to set up that I barely install any dev tools on base os.

I did until 3.2. The only real problem was native extensions, and many gem developers provided win32 bins for those things if they support win32 at all. Granted, I personally wasn't (...) God's gift to clean code, but I could certainly work with anything other people (say, on IRC) were working with and talking about.

Retr0spectrum 10y ago

I think the majority of webdev tools are pretty tedious to set up on Windows without cygwin etc.

Marazan 10y ago
Flask is no problem, Django is child's play to setup.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- true_religion 10y ago
  I feel like that's because someone put a lot of time and effort into making Python's core library play nice on Windows, and Pythonistas tend to interact with the OS/network only through core library functions. To contrast, Elixir runs on Windows. However, it may be hard to get all your projects up and running due to various baked in concerns where they were written to support Unix-like systems only.
schwarrrtz 10y ago
Node is a one click install on Windows, no cygwin required.
- mikewhy 10y ago
  True, until you want to build native modules. Then you need Python and parts of Visual Studio
  - joshmanders 10y ago
    So? If I want to build native modules on Linux or OS X I still need Python and other build tools. It's not fool proof on any OS.
takno 10y ago
Never had any significant issues with Java stuff, or php for that matter

jamesgeck0 10y ago

Historically, Ruby in general on Windows has not been awesome. But it's not going to matter when the Windows Subsystem for Linux hits stable in a few months. http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/03/ubuntu-on-windows.html http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/03/ubuntu-on-windows.htm...

Ericson2314 10y ago
I think that might be a bit too sandboxed for your needs.
- rhizome 10y ago
  It doesn't really matter anymore. It's been conventional wisdom for years to develop in a Linux VM if you have to use Windows otherwise. Unless that turns out to be more complex that the Windows Linux subsystem, I can't see VMs becoming an also-ran.
  - Ericson2314 10y ago
    If a Linux VM is fine for deployment, well then that specific component doesn't really need or use Windows very much does it. (That all unixy things need to put in VMs on a host running Windows is a very different constraint.) If it's important to deploy as a Windows process, then the Windows Linux subsystem is not much better than a VM. Point is, its no substitute for a (better) MSYS2/Cygwin.
    - rhizome 10y ago
      I think I understand your point, and it's been a while since my MCSE expired, but unless Cygwin has improved a lot I would estimate a VM wrapped by Windows would be much easier to manage and admin. Now if you're saying that the webapp itself would be required to be a Windows process, there's really no way around that. But as I implied elsewhere, the biggest stumbler for Rails on Windows has always been the lack of a compiler. Whether you compensate for that by installing a subsystem with that capability or by using a VM with the capability is largely a local problem to the company.

xraystyle 10y ago

How is this relevant, exactly? Ruby was written on and designed to run on *NIX OS's, as is most of the software commonly found in webapps, because it all runs on Linux servers. I'm sure it'd be a pain in the ass to get MS Paint to run on Debian, too.

kefka 10y ago
MS paint on Linux is easy.I double click on paint.exe and it runs. And I have WINE to thank for that layer of compatibility.
- JustSomeNobody 10y ago
  You realize it is that easy for you because it was a pain in the bottom for someone else, yes?
  - askl56 10y ago
    Isn't that the esssence of programming?

stephenhuey 10y ago

I've done that over the years and I used to answer questions on the RailsInstaller list, and yes, at times it was harder than at other times. I'm expecting it to be easier than ever thanks to Microsoft's recent announcement to support running Bash as a full-fledged citizen on Windows: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBashShellAndUsermodeUbuntuLinuxBinariesOnWindows10.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBashShellAndUs...

MrBra 10y ago

I don't know how long ago you tried it last time, but recently this has got much better. You surely could find some gotchas here and there, but it's not as much frustrating as it was before.

jdiscar 10y ago

The rails stack isn't designed for Windows, why should they waste dev cycles trying to support it? In any case, I do a fair amount of webdev on my windows gaming computer (don't want to mix work and side projects), VMs are so easy to set up that I barely install any dev tools on base os.