[erlang-questions] Windows

[José Valim]

>
> Now there's three ways Erlang could be more friendly to Windows developers:
>

Actually, if we really want to make Erlang more friendly to Windows
developers, the best way is to NOT finish the e-mail where we discuss
Windows support with "I know "real" developers use Unix". Even if "real"
and "fake" are in quotes. How do you expect all Windows users to join the
discussion if you have just called them "fake" developers?

In my experience, Cygwin makes things easier if you are a Unix developer
and you have to use Windows OR if you are a Unix developer and you don't
care much about Windows, so telling people to use Cygwin is the easiest
option for *you*. However, most Windows developers prefer to not use Cygwin.

I said "in my experience" because we ran two polls via Google Forms in the
Elixir mailing list targeted for Windows developers asking about their tool
chain, how they installed erlang/elixir, what could be improved, etc.

Since your mileage may vary, I recommend doing the same here. Open up a
form, ask questions and collect feedback. It is going to yield a much
better result than having a bunch of Unix folks deciding what is best for
Windows.

Some may not like the answer though. My biggest complaint about erlang.mk,
for example, has been exactly it is Unix centric. In Windows, if you want
to provide good experience, you may need to provide a Makefile.win. In most
cases though, Rebar works fine or with little adjustment. Here is one
example of each case:

* https://github.com/devinus/markdown
* https://github.com/synrc/fs

On the other hand, we could do a poll and conclude Cygwin support is the
biggest problem, then that should be our focus. But without asking around
and gathering information, it is all just shots in the dark.
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