3 ms·

(Disclaimer, I work for Microsoft, but on nothing at all related to Windows, so all this is my own opinion from having used computers since I was 5 or so :) )

by com2kid 12y ago

(Disclaimer, I work for Microsoft, but on nothing at all related to Windows, so all this is my own opinion from having used computers since I was 5 or so :) ) > Copying and pasting text causes weird characters to be carried around (e.g. emdash), and I haven't found a reliable way to sanitise it. That is by design. The Windows clipboard is insanely powerful, it'll paste the best representation of your text in that your destination buffer can handle. If I copy a code segment from Visual Studio (or Notepad++ with the right plugin!) I get to keep syntax highlighting if I paste into a program that can handle colored text. But if I paste into Notepad, all formatting gets cleared. Pasting into Notepad BTW is the standard way to clear any special formatting. Although an emdash isn't special by any means, it is just a normal character that has a specific use in the typewritten English language. > Apps that minimise to the small-icon part of the start bar (next to time) don't go to the back of the alt+tab stack. By design, and 100% up to the app creator. Alt-Tab switches between things on the taskbar. Things are minimized to the tray to keep them out of the way! > They should bundle a python API to windows and a recent version of python also. Make it easy to create and ship python on Windows. A community would just grow around this, with no further effort from them. IronPython? :-D But I know what you mean, Python is fun. > Weak scheduler, init mechanisms. (from user perspective) On this I disagree! Windows exposes its startup routines in a very user friendly manner. On top of that, the way Services are initialized actually works w/o worry or concern. End users don't have to deal with it, which is a blessing IMHO. > There's no nice IPC mechanism available for casual development. Cmd kind of has pipes but they're horrible. Windows has a plethora of IPC mechanisms available in native land, and .NET add in a few more! Start off with the old time favorites like TCP/IP loopback and named pipes (both of which are pretty darn easy to get up and running) and go on from there. But yeah, every OS has its oddities and warts. Heck if you write a clean room OS, by the time you are at version 1.01 cruft will have accumulated!

cturner 12y ago
> IronPython That'd be fine. > By design, and 100% up to the app creator. Alt-Tab > switches between things on the taskbar. Things are > minimized to the tray to keep them out of the way! Right. So the thread is about things that are wrong with the OS. The way it is may be up to the app creator. But it /should/ be not-at-all influenced by the app creator. Alt+tab is a platform feature, not an application feature. Its value is tied to the consistency of its behavior. If I minimise something, regardless of where it minimises to, it should go to the back of the app stack. That's what the user (me) expects from alt+tab. By the same principle, there shouldn't be ghost windows from Excel appearing in the alt+tab list. I'm particularly harsh on excel because it's Microsoft's own app, and it has behaviours that undermines the platform. > Start off with the old time favorites like TCP/IP > loopback and named pipes (both of which are pretty > darn easy to get up and running) and go on from > there. For my stuff, when I need this on Windows I just roll a TCP/IP even loop in python, and have that act as a message broker. But that's not an option for people who don't grok TCP/IP, which has a fair learning curve. You want a mechanism for casual developers where it's easy to tie things together. e.g. Have a batch script send data to a visual basic app. Maybe named pipes is good, haven't looked at that in windows. The best take on this stuff that I've seen is the Be API. It has a cascade of IPC systems from unix-style console pipes up to sophisticated and high-performance message passing. All of it is easily accessible from a single set of python wrappers.

by com2kid 12y ago

cturner 12y ago

> IronPython That'd be fine. > By design, and 100% up to the app creator. Alt-Tab > switches between things on the taskbar. Things are > minimized to the tray to keep them out of the way! Right. So the thread is about things that are wrong with the OS. The way it is may be up to the app creator. But it /should/ be not-at-all influenced by the app creator. Alt+tab is a platform feature, not an application feature. Its value is tied to the consistency of its behavior. If I minimise something, regardless of where it minimises to, it should go to the back of the app stack. That's what the user (me) expects from alt+tab. By the same principle, there shouldn't be ghost windows from Excel appearing in the alt+tab list. I'm particularly harsh on excel because it's Microsoft's own app, and it has behaviours that undermines the platform. > Start off with the old time favorites like TCP/IP > loopback and named pipes (both of which are pretty > darn easy to get up and running) and go on from > there. For my stuff, when I need this on Windows I just roll a TCP/IP even loop in python, and have that act as a message broker. But that's not an option for people who don't grok TCP/IP, which has a fair learning curve. You want a mechanism for casual developers where it's easy to tie things together. e.g. Have a batch script send data to a visual basic app. Maybe named pipes is good, haven't looked at that in windows. The best take on this stuff that I've seen is the Be API. It has a cascade of IPC systems from unix-style console pipes up to sophisticated and high-performance message passing. All of it is easily accessible from a single set of python wrappers.