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| -rw-r--r-- | blog/windows-pain-2021-03-03.markdown | 291 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | src/build.rs | 7 |
2 files changed, 294 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/blog/windows-pain-2021-03-03.markdown b/blog/windows-pain-2021-03-03.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f15f306 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/windows-pain-2021-03-03.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,291 @@ +--- +title: "Development on Windows is Painful" +date: 2021-03-03 +tags: + - windows + - vscode + - nix + - emacs + - rant +--- + +# Development on Windows is Painful + +<big>SUBJECTIVITY WARNING</big> + +This post contains opinions. They may differ from the opinions you hold, and +that's great. This post is not targeted at any individual person or +organization. This is a record of my frustration at trying to get Windows to do +what I consider "basic development tasks". Your experiences can and probably +will differ. As a reminder, I am speaking for myself, not any employer (past, +present and future). I am not trying to shit on anyone here or disregard the +contributions that people have made. This is coming from a place of passion for +the craft of computering. + +With me using VR more and more [with my Quest 2 set up with +SteamVR](/blog/convoluted-vrchat-gchat-setup-2021-02-24), I've had to use +windows more on a regular basis. It seems that in order to use [Virtual +Desktop](https://www.vrdesktop.net), I **MUST** have Windows as the main OS on +my machine for this to work. Here is a record of my pain and suffering trying to +do what I consider "basic" development tasks. + +## Text Editor + +I am a tortured soul that literally thinks in terms of Vim motions. This allows +me to be mostly keyboard-only when I am deep into hacking at things, which +really helps maintain flow state because I do not need to move my hands or look +at anything but the input line right in front of me. Additionally, I have gotten +_very_ used to my Emacs setup, and specifically the subtle minutae of how it +handles its Vim emulation mode and all of the quirks involved. + +I have tried to use my Emacs config on Windows (and barring the things that are +obviously impossible such as getting Nix to work with Windows) and have +concluded that it is a fantastic waste of my time to do this. There are just too +many things that have to be changed from my Linux/macOS config. That's okay, I +can just use [VSCode](https://code.visualstudio.com) like a bunch of apologists +have been egging me into right? It's worked pretty great for doing work stuff on +NixOS, so it should probably be fine on Windows, right? + +### Vim Emulation + +So let's try opening VSCode and activating the Vim plugin +[vscodevim](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vscodevim.vim). +I get that installed (and the gruvbox theme because I absolutely love the +Gruvbox aesthetics) and then open VSCode in a new folder. I can `:open` a new +file and then type something in it. Then I want to open another file split to +the left with `:vsplit`, so I press escape and type in `:vsplit bar.txt`. +Then I get a vsplit of the current buffer, not the new file that I actually +wanted. Now, this is probably a very niche thing that I am used to (even though +it works fine on vanilla vim and with evil-mode), and other people I have asked +about this apparently do not open new files like that (and one was surprised to +find out that worked at all); but this is a pretty heavily ingrained into my +muscle memory thing and it is frustrating. I have to retrain my decade old +buffer management muscle memory. + +#### Whichwrap + +Vim has a feature called whichwrap that lets you use the arrow keys at the +end/beginning of lines to go to the beginning/end of the next/previous line. I +had set this in my vim config [in November +2013](https://github.com/Xe/dotfiles/commit/d8301453c2b61846eea8305b9ed4b80f498f3838) +and promptly forgotten about it. This lead me to believe that this was Vim's +default behavior. + +It apparently is not. + +In order to fix this, I had to open the VSCode settings.json file and add the +following to it: + +```json +{ + "vim.whichwrap": "h,l,<,>,[,]" +} +``` + +Annoying, but setting this made it work like I expected. + +#### Kill Register != Clipboard + +Vim has the concept of registers, which are basically named/unnamed places that +can be used like the clipboard in most desktop environments. In my Emacs config, +the clipboard and the kill register* are identical. If I yank a region of text +into the kill register, it's put into the clipboard. If I copy something into +the clipboard, it's automagically put into the kill register. It's really +convenient this way. + +[*It's called the "kill register" here because the vim motions for manipulating +it are `y` to yank something into the kill register and `p` to put it into a +different part of the document. `d` and other motions like it also put the +things they remove into the kill register.](conversation://Mara/hacker) + +vscodevim doesn't do this by default, however there is another setting that you +can use to do this: + +```json +{ + "vim.useSystemClipboard": true +} +``` + +And then you can get the kill register to work like you'd expect. + +### Load Order of Extensions + +Emacs lets you control the load order of extensions. This can be useful to have +the project-local config extension load before the language support extension, +meaning that the right environment variables can be set before the language +server runs. + +As far as I can tell you just can't configure this. For a work thing I've had to +resort to disabling the Go extension, reloading VSCode, waiting for the direnv +settings to kick in and re-enabling the Go extension. This would be _so much +easier_ if I could just say "hey you go after this is done", but apparently this +is not something VSCode lets you control. Please correct me if I am wrong. + +## Development Tools + +This is probably where I'm going to get a lot more pedantic than I was +previously. I'm used to [st](https://st.suckless.org) as my terminal emulator +and [fish](https://fishshell.com) as my shell. This is actually a _really nice_ +combo in practice because st loads instantly and fish has some great features +like autocomplete based on shell history. Not to mention st allowing you to +directly select-to-copy and right-click to paste, which makes it even more +convenient to move text around quickly. + +### Git + +Git is not a part of the default development tooling setup. This was surprising. +When I installed Git manually from its website, I let it run and do its thing, +but then I realized it installed its own copy of bash, perl and coreutils. This +shouldn't have surprised me (a lot of Git's command line interface is written in +perl and shell scripts), but it was the 3rd copy of bash that I had installed on +the system. + +As a NixOS user, this probably shouldn't have bothered me. On NixOS I currently +have at least 8 copies of bash correlating to various versions of my tower's +configuration. However, those copies are mostly there so that I can revert +changes and then be able to go back to an older system setup. This is 3 copies +of bash that are all in active use, but they don't really know about eachother +(and the programs that are using them are arguably correct in doing this really +defensively with their own versions of things so that there's less of a +compatibility tesseract). + +Once I got it set up though, I was able to do git operations as normal. I was +also pleasantly surprised to find that ssh and more importantly ssh-keygen were +installed by default on Windows. That was really convenient and probably avoided +me having to install another copy of bash. + +### Windows Terminal + +Windows Terminal gets a lot of things very right and also gets a lot of things +very wrong. I was so happy to see that it had claimed it was mostly compatible +with xterm. My usual test for these things is to open a curses app that uses +the mouse (such as Weechat or terminal Emacs) and click on things. This usually +separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to compatible terminal +emulators. I used the SSH key from before to log into my server, connected to my +long-standing tmux session and then clicked on a channel name in Weechat. + +Nothing happened. + +I clicked again to be sure, nothing happened. + +I was really confused, then I started doing some digging and found [this GitHub +comment on the Windows Terminal +repo](https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/376#issuecomment-759285574). + +Okay, so the version of ssh that came with Windows is apparently too old. I can +understand that. When you bring something into the core system for things like +Windows you generally need to lock it at an older version so that you can be +sure that it says feature-compatible for years. This is not always the best life +decision, but it's one of the tradeoffs you have to make when you have long-term +support for things. It suggested I download a newer version of OpenSSH and tried +using that. + +I downloaded the zipfile and I was greeted with a bunch of binaries in a folder +with no obvious instructions on how to install them. Okay, makes sense, it's a +core part of the system and this is probably how they get the binaries around to +slipstream them into other parts of the Windows image build. An earlier comment +in the thread suggested this was fixed with Windows Subsystem for Linux, so +let's give that a try. + +### Windows Subsystem for Linux + +Windows Subsystem for Linux is a technical marvel. It makes dealing with Windows +a lot easier. If only it didn't railroad you into Ubuntu in the process. Now +don't get me wrong, Ubuntu works. It's boring. If you need to do something on a +Linux system, nobody would get fired for suggesting Ubuntu. It just happens to +not be the distro I want. + +However, I can ssh into my server with the Ubuntu VM and then I can click around +in Weechat to my heart's content. I can also do weird builds with Nix and it +just works. Neat. + +I should probably figure out how hard it would be to get a NixOS-like +environment in WSL, but WSL can't run systemd so I've been kinda avoiding it. +Excising systemd from NixOS really defeats most of the point in my book. I may +end up installing Nix on Alpine or something. IDK. + +### PowerShell + +They say you can learn a lot about the design of a command line interface by +what commands are used to do things like change directory, list files in a +directory and download files from the internet. In PowerShell these are +`Get-ChildItem`, `Set-Location` and `Invoke-WebRequest`. However there are +aliases for `ls`, `dir`, `cd` and `wget` (these aliases aren't always +flag-compatible, so you may want to actually get used to doing things in the +PowerShell way if you end up doing anything overly fancy). + +Another annoying thing was that pressing Control-D on an empty prompt didn't end up closing the session. In order to do this you need to edit your shell profile file: + +``` +PS C:\Users\xena> code $profile +``` + +Then you add this to the .ps1 file: + +``` +Set-PSReadlineOption -EditMode Emacs +``` + +Save this file then close and re-open PowerShell. + +If this was your first time editing your PowerShell config (like it was for me) +you are going to have to mess with your +[execution policy](https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2702/setting-the-powershell-execution-policy/) +to allow you to execute scrips on your local machine. I get the reason why they +did this, PowerShell has a lot of...well...power over the system. Doing this +must outright eliminate a lot of attack vectors without doing much on the +admin's side. But this applies to your shell profile too. So you are going to +need to make a choice as to what security level you want to have with PowerShell +scripts. I personally went with `RemoteSigned`. + +### Themes + +I use stuff cribbed from [oh my fish](https://github.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish) +for my fish prompt. I googled "oh my powershell" and hoped I would get lucky +with finding some nice batteries-included tools. +[I got lucky](https://ohmyposh.dev/docs/installation/). + +After looking through the options I saw a theme named `sorin` that looks like +this: + + + +### Project-local Dependencies + +To get this I'd need to do everything in WSL and use Nix. VSCode even has some +nice integration that makes this easy. I wish there was a more native option +though. + +## Things Windows Gets Really Right + +The big thing that Windows gets really right as a developer is backwards +compatibility. For better or worse I can install just about any program from +the last 30 years of released software targeting windows and it will Just Work. + +All of the games that I play natively target windows, and I don't have to hack +at Steam's linux setup to get things like Sonic Adventure 2 working. All of the +VR stuff I want to do will Just Work. All of the games I download will Just +Work. I don't have to do the Proton rain dance. I don't have to play with GPU +driver paths. I don't have to disable my compositor to get Factorio to launch. +And most of all when I report a problem it's likely to actually be taken +seriously instead of moaned at because I run a distribution without `/usr/lib`. + +--- + +Overall, I think I can at least tolerate this development experience. It's not +really the most ideal setup, but it does work and I can get things done with it. +It makes me miss NixOS though. NixOS really does ruin your expectations of what +a desktop operating system should be. It leaves you with kind of impossible +standards, and it can be a bit hard to unlearn them. + +A lot of the software I use is closed source proprietary software. I've tried to +fight that battle before. I've given up. When it works, Linux on the desktop is +a fantastic experience. Everything works together there. The system is a lot +more cohesive compared to the "download random programs and hope for the best" +strategy that you end up taking with Windows systems. It's hard to do the +"download random programs and hope for the best" strategy with Linux on the +desktop because there really isn't one Linux platform to target. There's 20 or +something. This is an advantage sometimes, but is a huge pain other times. + +The conclusion here is that there is no conclusion.
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/src/build.rs b/src/build.rs index 7c3f12d..d2fb8e2 100644 --- a/src/build.rs +++ b/src/build.rs @@ -9,15 +9,14 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> { .output() .unwrap(); - if std::env::var("out").is_err() { - println!("cargo:rustc-env=out=/yolo"); - } + let out = std::env::var("out").unwrap_or("/fake".into()); + println!("cargo:rustc-env=out={}", out); let git_hash = String::from_utf8(output.stdout).unwrap(); println!( "cargo:rustc-env=GITHUB_SHA={}", if git_hash.as_str() == "" { - env!("out").into() + out.into() } else { git_hash } |