From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2006-10-28T04:48:23+09:00
Subject: Re: How do I tell when I'm on Cygwin?

Austin Ziegler wrote:
> On 10/27/06, Bill Kelly <billk@cts.com> wrote:
...
>> I'm not baffled.    <grin>
> 
> Bully for you. <grin>

<grin>


(That's the grin without the cat, in case you're wondering.)



>> Did you ever code in VB6? I did, once. Unless the alternative was my
>> family's starvation, I never would again.
> 
> I haven't. I've used VBA and built some pretty impressive (if fragile)
> stuff on top of Access and Word, but I've never had to use full-on VB.
> Maybe I *am* different than elsewhom participating in this thread: I use
> the tool that's most appropriate to the environment. I was doing
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Tool choice is a tradeoff between:

* most appropriate to the environment

* most appropriate to the task

* most appropriate to the user

and maybe other factors as well. What this thread shows is that 
different combinations of env/task/user will make the tradeoff come out 
differently. No one size fits all.

...
> * Bash has history displayable through 'history'. cmd.exe displays it
...
 > * Bash can tab complete program names (in the path), filenames, and
...

I like zsh's history completion. There's nothing like typing

$ !rm<tab>

and getting feedback that might prevent you from making a huge mistake. 
Maybe bash has this too, but I've never seen a way to turn it on. The 
same goes for wildcard completion:

$ rm *.rb<tab>

> * Both have scripting languages; both scripting languages have some
>  impressive capabilities. Bash's language is slightly more powerful,
>  but both are like pulling teeth. I'd rather use Ruby, and both bash
>  and cmd.exe treat these equally.

Yes to the teeth simile.

> There are other things, but by and large I find them both to be a wash
> in the use. I don't even miss "screen" on Windows because it's trivial
> to open another command window.

But not trivial (even possible?), without screen, to detach from a 
session, move to another host, and reconnect to the session. Pls tell me 
I'm wrong...

-- 
       vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407