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by pjmlp 2556 days ago
No, because many developers are part of that 99%.

Being a developer is not a synonym to be enamored with an UNIX CLI.

In fact, a graphical REPL is much more powerful.

So no, that 1% does not target the other 99%.
1 comments
robenkleene 2556 days ago
Liking using something is a bit different than having to use something. Are you saying you don't think the majority of developers need to use the command line for things like git, npm/general dependency management, running local web servers, compiling apps, continuous integration, etc...?
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pjmlp 2556 days ago
Yes, that is a tiny portion of what being a developer is all about.

Not everyone is writing UNIX daemons, stuck in UNIX workflows.

As I said, a graphical REPL for scripting languages is much more powerful.

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robenkleene 2556 days ago
If you're talking about web developers, then the majority literally are writing Unix daemons[1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...

Again, I'm not talking about what's more powerful, and I'm not saying that everyone works this way, but I am suggesting the majority of developers do need the command line to do their job.

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any usage statistics for the command line in isolation. But if you look at the most popular technologies, e.g., Node[2], then you can most likely extrapolate that the majority of developers are working with the command line.

[2]: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology-_-...

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pjmlp 2556 days ago
Since we are speaking about Apple ecosystem here, most devs live in XCode.

Just like we used to live on MPW and Metrowerks before.

Scripting is perfectly doable from macros and IDE callable scripts.

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robenkleene 2556 days ago
CocoaPods, Carthage, Fastlane, git, all require the command line, and most teams use some combination of those. Not to mention Xcode literally is just a wrapper around Unix processes like `xcodebuild` and `SourceKitService`. Then there's a whole host of other support command-line utilities for doing Cocoa development like `codesign`, `xcrun`, and `xcode-select` off the top of my head.

Again, I wasn't making argument about where developers spend most of their time. Just that they need the command line as part of their workflow.

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pjmlp 2556 days ago
How many processes an IDE uses is an implementation detail.

The large majority of Apple and Microsoft developer communities live on their IDEs as part of our workflow.

Scripting and automatization can be easily done from the IDE as well, thanks to macros, REPL and build integration points.

Dropping down into a UNIX like CLI is the exception, not the norm for a large community.

Ah, but what about WSL? Well, Microsoft saw a market opportunity to win developers that buy Apple computers to do Linux work, instead of buying laptops from the likes of Dell/Asus/Tuxedo/system76 to start with.

So they are making UNIX devs comfortable on a foreign platform, just like NeXT was built on top of UNIX to take a piece of the pie from the UNIX workstation market being lead by Sun.

Using the shell was never a thing for NeXTSTEP nor classical Mac OS development workflow.

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