GNU gettext trolling Windows developers


  • BINNED

    If you have not had the misfortune of trying to compile crappy GNU code count yourself lucky.

    What does Woe32 mean?

    “Woe32” denotes the Windows 32-bit operating systems for x86: Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista and Windows 95/98/ME. Microsoft uses the term “Win32” to denote these; this is a psychological trick in order to make everyone believe that these OSes are a “win” for the user. However, for most users and developers, they are a source of woes, which is why I call them “Woe32”.

    :wtf: The only reason I had to even look up what the actual fuck Woe32 means is that I was compiling this piece of crap as dependency for a build environment and something was broken pointing to Woe32.

    Here is the source of woes in just one of the directories:

        aclocal.m4    757 lines
        configure
        configure.ac
        Makefile.am
        Makefile.in 886 lines
        autogen.sh 476 lines  
        libtool 11960 lines
    

    All that fucking cruft (plus setting environment variables, ...) to create a single Makefile to compile their software. Now try to debug why something in this arcane thousands-of-lines of bash-jaculation-lisp-emacs is broken. Each time it takes like 20 minutes for the crap to get into the Makefile.
    Then you say, hmm I wonder what Woe32 is! Fucking FSF :stallman: :trollface: s.



  • @dse said in GNU gettext trolling Windows developers:

    If you have not had the misfortune of trying to compile crappy GNU code count yourself lucky.

    What does Woe32 mean?

    “Woe32” denotes the Windows 32-bit operating systems for x86: Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista and Windows 95/98/ME. Microsoft uses the term “Win32” to denote these; this is a psychological trick in order to make everyone believe that these OSes are a “win” for the user. However, for most users and developers, they are a source of woes, which is why I call them “Woe32”.

    :wtf: The only reason I had to even look up what the actual fuck Woe32 means is that I was compiling this piece of crap as dependency for a build environment and something was broken pointing to Woe32.

    Here is the source of woes in just one of the directories:

        aclocal.m4    757 lines
        configure
        configure.ac
        Makefile.am
        Makefile.in 886 lines
        autogen.sh 476 lines  
        libtool 11960 lines
    

    All that fucking cruft (plus setting environment variables, ...) to create a single Makefile to compile their software. Now try to debug why something in this arcane thousands-of-lines of bash-jaculation-lisp-emacs is broken. Each time it takes like 20 minutes for the crap to get into the Makefile.
    Then you say, hmm I wonder what Woe32 is! Fucking FSF :stallman: :trollface: s.

    Not the first time, and I'm not surprised if it's not the last time too.

    Say, do you remember what Apache POI (the library for creating MS Office files written for Java) stands for?



  • @dse said in GNU gettext trolling Windows developers:

    Microsoft uses the term “Win32” to denote these; this is a psychological trick in order to make everyone believe that these OSes are a “win” for the user. However, for most users and developers, they are a source of woes, which is why I call them “Woe32”.

    That's so witty! I'd never have thought of that!!

    "Woe32 by Microsucks" (get it? I changed the "soft" part of Microsoft with "sucks" because their software sucks)



  • Ah, configure madness. Reminds me of my misadventure with Network Simulator in first year Engineer School...


  • Winner of the 2016 Presidential Election

    @Medinoc said in GNU gettext trolling Windows developers:

    Ah, configure madness. Reminds me of my misadventure with Network Simulator in first year Engineer School...

    Here, I think you dropped this: :belt_onion:



  • Yeah. People that use autotools don't really get to apply labels like "woe" to other software.



  • My favourite part is always the patronising autoconf manual:

    Those who do not understand Autoconf are condemned to reinvent it, poorly. The primary goal of Autoconf is making the user's life easier; making the maintainer's life easier is only a secondary goal.

    lol n00bs, suck it up!


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @clatter said in GNU gettext trolling Windows developers:

    The primary goal of Autoconf is making the user's life easier; making the maintainer's life easier is only a secondary goal.

    But this applies to any software, really.

    lol n00bs, suck it up!

    in this case, applies on freedom-oriented systems that conflate 'user' with 'maintainer'.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @dse said in GNU gettext trolling Windows developers:

    Here is the source of woes in just one of the directories:

    I loathe libtool. It's a horrendously complicated pile of shit that craps incomprehensibility over your build just to solve a problem that vanished in the wild over 20 years ago. If I invented a time machine, I wouldn't go back and kill Hitler, because I'd be busy erasing the creators of libtool from history.

    I don't like autoconf. It generates scripts that act as a mausoleum to past shell bugs. OTOH, if you're really bootstrapping a system (i.e., building tools that let you avoid autoconf in the future) then it is very close to your only choice.

    I find automake annoying. It's really keen on turning your code into :stallman:–infected code, it is deeply gnostic in how it works, and it uses autoconf and libtool to do its dirty work.



  • @dse said in GNU gettext trolling Windows developers:

    I was compiling this piece of crap

    I solved that by using a pre-built windows version: https://github.com/vslavik/gettext-tools-windows/releases


  • :belt_onion:

    @dse said in GNU gettext trolling Windows developers:

    All that fucking cruft (plus setting environment variables, ...) to create a single Makefile to compile their software. Now try to debug why something in this arcane thousands-of-lines of bash-jaculation-lisp-emacs is broken. Each time it takes like 20 minutes for the crap to get into the Makefile.

    At that point I say "fuck it" and just import the files into Visual Studio. Literal trial and error to figure out things like the compile definitions will still be faster and produce a better binary than all of that nonsense poorly ported to Windows.



  • @heterodox said in GNU gettext trolling Windows developers:

    At that point I say "fuck it" and just import the files into Visual Studio. Literal trial and error to figure out things like the compile definitions will still be faster and produce a better binary than all of that nonsense poorly ported to Windows nonsense.

    FTFY


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