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Windows as a frustrating dev environment
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:18 pm
by jamiel
Coming from Linux & Gentoo at work, I have tried on numerous occcasion's to use my laptop (Running Windows XP) as a suitable development platform for when I am at home. Each attempt leaves me increasingly frustrated and I was just wondering if any of you prefer a Windows Environment for PHP development as opposed to a Linux environment and your reasoning behind this.
My frustrations mainly revolved around quickly being able to run test scripts from command line, installing and implement pear in any of my classes, and trying to find a structured way of organizing my files.
Also subversion seems tiresome without the simplictiy of command line shortcuts like svn commit -m 'Fix bug #332'. (Even gave something called TortoiseSVN a go) I have been trying Ultra Edit as an editor of choice, and although nowhere near in the same league as vim, I find it one of the few things that didn't leave me frustrated. (Although I think the interface to edit files remotely can be improved).
Apache is a nightmare to debug, and the tiny little command prompt to access the MySQL client from command line is just plain annoying.
I have a feeling that if I were to get hired by an employer who did not allow me to install Linux on my desktop machine, my productivity would decrease by a good 30-40% at least. Is this because I'm not used to developing in a Windows environment, or because it really is just this frustrating.
-- Jamie
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:30 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I feel the same way you do except with the environments reversed. I tried, broefly, to develop in Linux and kiled it quickly because I was unfamiliar with the environment. I have my Windows XP laptop set up to run everything I need for developing in PHP and DotNet. I run IIS, Apache, PHP5, DotNet2, Visual Studio Express, Zend Studio, MSDE Express and MySQL. I have never had a problem with it.
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:43 pm
by jamiel
Do you test all code via a browser? Or is the php executable in your path so that you can quickly test scripts from command line?
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:46 pm
by Weirdan
Jamiel, you should give a try to UnxUtils package and Win32 version of Vim. Makes life less painful on Win platform

Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:47 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I can't develop in windows. I do too much scp'ing and ssh'ing, I feel most comfortable with a terminal window open to work in and I can't find a windows editor as good as Kate (or Quanta since it uses the loads of the same stuff).
Package management is a million times better for the fact it's centralised into a repository on the distros I use and my desktop enviroment is cleaner. I have all the compile tools I need and can hack my system to modify it to do what I need with ease. I can work remotely just as easily as I can work locally and I can do cool things like SSH mount the drive on the server to my PC. Antivirus and spyware blockers aren't slowing me down and if I want to "kill" an application I don't need to start another one to do it! (I'm referring to Task manager in windows).
Oh, and I'm not particularly fond of screens that go blue
Seriosuly though, yeah I do get frustrated with Windows just generally.... I can't manipulate the system anywhere near as much as I can in linux.
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:53 pm
by feyd
php 5 and php 4 are both in my paths. Testing is done in both the browser and command line, depending on what's going on. I'll often have a command prompt open, even if I'm not coding.

Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:10 pm
by RobertGonzalez
jamiel wrote:Do you test all code via a browser? Or is the php executable in your path so that you can quickly test scripts from command line?
Most the time I test in the browser. Sometimes I run the Zend debugger which loads the script and executes it all from the IDE. It has a neat little 'View in browser feature' so you can see the generated coded in a browser if you want, but if you are just looking for the output of the script, it is done right in the IDE.
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:18 pm
by daedalus__
I use Windows Server 2003 on my laptop with PHP 5 and MySQL. It works great.
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:04 am
by timvw
I use multiple environments simultaneously.. I have win xp pro on my desktop and run win 2K3 server and debian under vmware server...
With remote desktop connection and putty (ssh client with a nicer console than cmd.exe) i use all of them...
(Btw, i really like the win32 port of gvim)
Re: Windows as a frustrating dev environment
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:48 am
by Grim...
jamiel wrote:[...]and the tiny little command prompt to access the MySQL client from command line is just plain annoying.
Er... So make it bigger?
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:50 am
by jamiel
Well, I know my Windows skills really dropped in the last 2 years since I use *nix 99% of the time, but I couldn't for the life me figure out how to full screen the command prompt. Could only get it to make some half screen window when its maximized which I couldn't resize.
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:08 am
by GM
Right click on the MySQL prompt title bar, select Properties. Allows you to resize the window, the buffer, the font etc.
I use Windows because that's all I've got. I'd like to have a play with Linux at some point, but I have a feeling that there is a fair learning curve.
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:16 am
by Chris Corbyn
GM wrote:I'd like to have a play with Linux at some point, but I have a feeling that there is a fair learning curve.
You'd be surprised. Once you've got the thing installed and working you can get by in a desktop environment just about as intuitively as windows. You don't even need to go near the command line with some distros if you choose not to. That includes Ubuntu, but Linspire is supposed to be a strong distro if you really are struggling to move from windows.
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:25 am
by GM
I'll look into them, cheers
Just a case of getting Telecom Italia to sort my bloody internet access out...
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:02 am
by Todd_Z
When I migrated to linux, I didn't have high expectations for my capabilities. Just accept that you aren't going to be building apache from source and applying patches the first day. Play around with ubuntu for a couple weeks as just a desktop environment, learn to manipulate gnome, browse the file structure, etc. Then after you get a strong foothold on the monster, go for the server environment.