[everdev]

Ruby has a very readable syntax and easy learning curve for new devs. What it lacks is the performance and type safety of a compiled language which I think is why many people eventually switch to Rust and Go.

Interestingly, Crystal might be an easier jump as it's syntax is very similar to Ruby, but with the performance gains that come with compiling to a single executable.

Crystal is still pre-1.0 though so it doesn't quite have the production-ready stability or robust community of Go or Rust.

https://crystal-lang.org

[dleslie]

Perhaps critically, it lacks an official Windows distribution and support.

[learc83]

Is anyone deploying anything other than .NET on windows for webdev though?

[grogenaut]

I work on windows boxes all the time for go development it works great for that. Docker / Docker machine cause issues, and I can't use HyperV because I also have to be able to run android emulator.

However every time I've looked at crystal I've stopped because there's no windows version. I have to have a gaming PC and I only use editors and languages that work on windows mac and linux so I don't hamstring myself or anyone I'm working with.

[learc83]

>However every time I've looked at crystal I've stopped because there's no windows version. I have to have a gaming PC and I only use editors and languages that work on windows mac and linux so I don't hamstring myself or anyone I'm working with.

I have a gaming PC too and I run my editor and browser etc... in windows, but I have a Linux server where the software I'm developing actually lives and runs (if it's something web based and not designed to run on windows).

I can't for the life of me figure out why you would actually run your development environment on a drastically different OS than what you're deploying to unless you absolutely have to. You're just asking to introduce an entirely avoidable class of bugs.

I have done it btw, Go software developed for Raspberry PI on windows, but I definitely wouldn't do it again.

[pjmlp]

Some of us do deploy Web applications on Windows.

[learc83]

In which case developing on Windows makes perfect sense.

[james_s_tayler]

Just run a Linux dev VM in VMware. Best of all worlds. You have your Windows gaming PC and you can develop on it in Linux.

[grogenaut]

done that for years too. file syncing from windows to linux isn't the fastest... the vms are decently fast but not good enough. I also use quad monitors on my windows pc and 7 at work (tho one runs twitch or MLB all day), I hate to say it but the vm feels almost as bad as me using a 13" laptop (or a laptop in general for development without monitor) feels. I just switched my laptop to linux (it's new and it's god awful fast, it was always choking on windows, and it may be because linux isn't speed stepping the cpu constantly). My desktop is generally quite fast but it's a beefy box.

[james_s_tayler]

I find that if I use VMWare the VM is nice and fast and no problems. If I use VirtualBox the performance isn't fantastic but still workable.

How on earth do you use 7 monitors for work?

[pault]

A lot of folks have to use Windows machines at their day jobs.

[learc83]

If they're not deploying on windows though, there isn't much reason to develop on it.

[pault]

That's what I'm saying. It's not uncommon for companies to have AWS linux infrastructure for deployment but give everyone windows laptops for development. Don't ask me, ask the IT department.

[learc83]

Are they running Linux VMs? Everywhere I've worked, I'm one of the few who's not on a Mac, so I'm not familiar with companies like this.

[davedx]

node.js.

I have a production line of business app running on node.js in a full windows environment (cloud server and desktop) for a SME I do work for.

[dleslie]

As a game developer who sometimes uses Ruby, Crystal is appealing but a non starter.

[pjmlp]

Java and C++ (IIS modules)

[ajmurmann]

Is this really an issue for most devs moving from Ruby? I don't think I have ever run Ruby on Windows or talked to anyone who did.

[grogenaut]

In 2008 when I did rails I was always annoyed that the dev tools heavily favored mac but you deployed to linux. No end of issues with native gems and deploys. I don't think I was using windows back then.

[dimaboychev]

I hate this. Some tools work best on Linux (i.e. LAMP/LEMP, composer, etc. - performance is noticeably better than Mac). I don't even mention Windows here because it's probably worse. I'd love to have one ultimate OS to do web development, but find myself hopping to Linux and back to Mac... and occasionally to Windows (games :D). Mac/Windows with Linux VM solves this issue, but it's a hassle. Windows Subsystem for Linux is again very slow (try composer) because of slow I/O -- so that great attempt from Microsoft doesn't work for all.

[geowwy]

Rails is still very much develop on Mac/deploy to Linux. Although I think developing on Windows and Linux is easier these days.