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0 pointsjiggawatts4y ago0 comments

"Dark Matter Development" -- finally I have a name for it!

Sometimes you see articles on the Internet where someone basically says something along the lines of "All developers use the Linux bash command-line workflow", and I just look at statements like that and wonder what on earth are they talking about!?

I have never seen a developer familiar with the command line. I have never seen a developer willingly use a Linux desktop. I have never seen anyone do anything but boring, "dark matter" .NET and Java development using IDEs on Windows.

I'm not talking about a couple of guys here. I mean that I have met or interacted with hundreds of developers across dozens of organisations!

Literally not one has ever said: "I wish I had bash", or any similar statement.

I tell a lie. I just remember that the one startup that I worked for had: Linux, bash scripting, allergies to Microsoft, hip-new-technologies, etc, etc...

0 comments

kumarvvr4y ago

I agree. I am from India. My whole life I have used Windows. Usage and teaching of Unix / Linux is severely limited to top universities, and only because they copy the US university culture (most professors are US educated)

90% of the articles on the web, are 100% certain that I have a use VIM / Emacs, on a Linux machine.

Where are the articles that focus on the rest of us?

andai4y ago

What kind of articles make assumptions about your preferred text editor? Or do you mean they assume you're on Linux in general?

jiggawattsOP4y ago

As a random example, the justification presented for VS Code using "up arrow" to view the search & replace history is that it matches the "bash standard". Every other Windows text editor in the history of the world uses down-arrow.

Similarly, Microsoft broke how clear screen works in both Windows Terminal and VS Code to match the UNIX terminal standard.

Hint: Neither of these are standards by any definition, and UNIX people were arguing over both of these things at length themselves.

Before we forget: VS Code is made by Microsoft employees and is primarily deployed by people using Microsoft Windows.

But it has to adhere to the "standards" that Microsoft developers are used to and expect.

runako4y ago

> I have never seen a developer familiar with the command line.

There are a lot of CLI devs out there, even in enterprises! I highly recommend gaining proficiency with the command line, as it will make you a more productive developer in the long run. While most everyday tasks may have a GUI, if you end up working near the cutting edge, you will likely encounter problems that do not have any GUI alternative. And if you end up working on a rare problem, no GUI may ever emerge. Your CLI skills may be the difference between a 10-minute solve and not being able to accomplish the task at all.

I spent > 10 years building on Windows, and this advice definitely applies to the .NET ecosystem as much as others. On Windows, Powershell mastery will set you apart.

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