Re: [mail] Re: Windows Build System

tom lane wrote:
> <flame on>
> In all honesty, I do not *want* Windows people to think that
> they're not running on the "poor stepchild" platform.

We should distinguish between "poor stepchild" from a client support
perspective and a production environment perspective.

What is the downside to supporting development of client products
better? That is what I am really suggesting.

If people are deciding what open-source database server they want to
use, Linux or FreeBSD is the obvious choice for the server OS. The kind
of people who are inclined to use PostgreSQL or MySQL will mostly NOT be
considering Windows servers.

> I have no objection to there being a Windows port that people
> can use to do SQL-client development on their laptops. But
> let us please not confuse this with an industrial-strength
> solution; nor give any level of support that might lead
> others to make such confusion.

All we can do is simply to make it clear that Windows
is not recommended for production server use and outline
all the reasons why Windows sucks for that purpose.

Beyond that, if people want to shoot themselves in the head, they will
do so and I don't see much point in trying to stop them.

> The MySQL guys made the right choice here: they don't want to
> buy into making Windows a grade-A platform, either. <flame off>

<flame retardent on>
How does providing a native Windows executable that doesn't require
Cygwin accomplish your objective. It seems to me that you are going to
have the problem if you release a native version irrespective of the
issue at hand (Visual C++ project support).

I don't see how making it easier to build adds to this problem.

I also don't see how making it harder for Windows client developer to
adopt PostgreSQL helps anyone. <flame retardent off>

I hate Microsoft and I don't like Windows, but I am forced to use it
because the software we need to run our business runs only on
Windows. I use Unix whenever possible and whenever reliability is
required.

- Curtis

P.S. The lack of a real C++ client library that supports the most common
development environment out there is another problem that seriously
impedes Windows client developers.

I like libpqxx, Jeroen did a find job. However, one needs to
jump through hoops to get it to run on Visual C++ 6.0 at
the moment.