6 ms·

Because developers may need to delete large folders in Windows

excalibur 9y ago
This is incredibly basic computer knowledge. Has Windows actually fallen so far out of the loop that there are developers who know Rust or Go, but don't know something this fundamental?
- a1371 9y ago
  I neither know Rust nor Go, and I didn't knew about these operations in the Windows. But I get surprised when some other stuff end up in the front page. People have different scopes and the multidisciplinary of HN makes it a valuable network.
- Karunamon 9y ago
  It's incredibly basic computer knowledge that a modern day OS is so badly designed that it requires the user to drop into the command line to delete large folders efficiently because otherwise, it spends most of its time telling you how long it will take to tell you how long it will take? That's one hell of an indictment of Windows!
  - problems 9y ago
    There's some truth to it though - the Windows Explorer file operations are flaky as hell. I was just trying to copy files between an old system drive and a new one but I kept getting infinite recursion issues with the "Documents and Settings" (which is linked to Users) directory, permission issues, etc. Even as the SYSTEM user. I wound up having to learn a little robocopy for it.
    - E6300 9y ago
      Yeah, since Windows Vista/7, when Documents and Settings was moved to Users, the system creates new user directories with a bunch of symbolic links/junctions that don't seem to be properly created and always cause issues when copying the directory to another place or deleting the directory. I always get this problem when moving my profile directory out of the system partition. Incidentally, it's amazing that Windows still doesn't let you specify a custom location to create the profile directory of a new user.
- hungerstrike 9y ago
  Windows users vastly prefer modern GUIs instead of old, archaic command line interfaces that were invented in the 1960s. So, I don't see how these commands should be considered fundamental to those users.
  - defined 9y ago
    As someone who uses these "old, archaic command-line interfaces" all day, every day, on Linux, Windows, and macOS, I find this characterization very entertaining. This is an age-old argument (GUI vs command line), and I think each generation coming into computing via the GUI will initially agree with you, but after some time trying to do things that are slow and frustrating using the GUI, will break out into song and dance on discovering the ease and speed with which the command line can do them. It's all about using the right tool for the job. GUI is awesome for many things, the command line is better for many others.
    - hungerstrike 9y ago
      GUIs are objectively better for every single task. Given a proper choice, 100% of users would choose a GUI over the command line. I have no doubt about this in my mind. Unfortunately, GUIs are still more difficult to build well. Once that is no longer true, the command line will soon cease to exist.
      - kruczek 9y ago
        Can you even imagine Turing-complete GUI? That's what would be necessary to rival Turing-completeness of scripting in CLI. And even if such GUI would be created, I don't think it would be any easier to understand than learning CLI commands. And it would require significant overhead to use; consider for example how you would search files for content matching a regex - in CLI I simply type in the regex one-liner, but in GUI I guess I'd have to click around visually building the regex? This would be a nightmare to use. GUIs definitely are not a good tool for vast range of tasks.
        9y ago
- rdiddly 9y ago
  I work with Microsoft stuff every day, but I didn't know the little registry trick at the end, so that's handy.
captainmuon 9y ago
That deleting (and moving) large folders is so slow in Windows is a major pain point for node.js developers.
- tracker1 9y ago
  I recently went to an nvme drive... didn't even notice it being particularly faster until I worked on one of my larger node projects... was about 3x as fast as my sata ssds. Never going back to HDD if I can avoid it, I have one for video transcodes, that's it though.

This is incredibly basic computer knowledge. Has Windows actually fallen so far out of the loop that there are developers who know Rust or Go, but don't know something this fundamental?

a1371 9y ago
I neither know Rust nor Go, and I didn't knew about these operations in the Windows. But I get surprised when some other stuff end up in the front page. People have different scopes and the multidisciplinary of HN makes it a valuable network.
Karunamon 9y ago
It's incredibly basic computer knowledge that a modern day OS is so badly designed that it requires the user to drop into the command line to delete large folders efficiently because otherwise, it spends most of its time telling you how long it will take to tell you how long it will take? That's one hell of an indictment of Windows!
- problems 9y ago
  There's some truth to it though - the Windows Explorer file operations are flaky as hell. I was just trying to copy files between an old system drive and a new one but I kept getting infinite recursion issues with the "Documents and Settings" (which is linked to Users) directory, permission issues, etc. Even as the SYSTEM user. I wound up having to learn a little robocopy for it.
  - E6300 9y ago
    Yeah, since Windows Vista/7, when Documents and Settings was moved to Users, the system creates new user directories with a bunch of symbolic links/junctions that don't seem to be properly created and always cause issues when copying the directory to another place or deleting the directory. I always get this problem when moving my profile directory out of the system partition. Incidentally, it's amazing that Windows still doesn't let you specify a custom location to create the profile directory of a new user.
hungerstrike 9y ago
Windows users vastly prefer modern GUIs instead of old, archaic command line interfaces that were invented in the 1960s. So, I don't see how these commands should be considered fundamental to those users.
- defined 9y ago
  As someone who uses these "old, archaic command-line interfaces" all day, every day, on Linux, Windows, and macOS, I find this characterization very entertaining. This is an age-old argument (GUI vs command line), and I think each generation coming into computing via the GUI will initially agree with you, but after some time trying to do things that are slow and frustrating using the GUI, will break out into song and dance on discovering the ease and speed with which the command line can do them. It's all about using the right tool for the job. GUI is awesome for many things, the command line is better for many others.
  - hungerstrike 9y ago
    GUIs are objectively better for every single task. Given a proper choice, 100% of users would choose a GUI over the command line. I have no doubt about this in my mind. Unfortunately, GUIs are still more difficult to build well. Once that is no longer true, the command line will soon cease to exist.
    - kruczek 9y ago
      Can you even imagine Turing-complete GUI? That's what would be necessary to rival Turing-completeness of scripting in CLI. And even if such GUI would be created, I don't think it would be any easier to understand than learning CLI commands. And it would require significant overhead to use; consider for example how you would search files for content matching a regex - in CLI I simply type in the regex one-liner, but in GUI I guess I'd have to click around visually building the regex? This would be a nightmare to use. GUIs definitely are not a good tool for vast range of tasks.
      - 9y ago
rdiddly 9y ago
I work with Microsoft stuff every day, but I didn't know the little registry trick at the end, so that's handy.

captainmuon 9y ago

That deleting (and moving) large folders is so slow in Windows is a major pain point for node.js developers.

tracker1 9y ago
I recently went to an nvme drive... didn't even notice it being particularly faster until I worked on one of my larger node projects... was about 3x as fast as my sata ssds. Never going back to HDD if I can avoid it, I have one for video transcodes, that's it though.