Windows 7 vs Android for Hello World | Hacker News Reader

Windows 7 vs Android for Hello World

blogs.msdn.com

3 pointsrlmw12 comments

Of course if you're not using windows the equation changes immediately! Also I noted how much xaml was required for the WinMo7 Hello World. Seems like they've pretty much given it to you already in a template. Shame there's no real analysis of the long term costs of development including app-store deployment costs, acceptance rates, etc.

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It is an insanely sloppy article but the point is a valid one. Microsoft has spent all kinds of money making Development on WP7 easy and that's after they spent all kinds of money making Silverlight easy. WP7 development is very easy.

But my counter point would be "So What?!?" Hello World in DOS is easier than writing it in OS X. But people don't develop for DOS because no one uses it anymore.

In the same way it isn't ease of use that's keeping people from developing for WP7.

He missed a few steps:

  Install parallels on MAC or Linux machine
  Install Windows 7 on Parallels

There, now we can compare.

Unfair comparison: Android steps include downloading Eclipse, Windows 7 steps do not include downloading Visual Studio. AFAIK, Visual Studio is not a standard install on Windows.

He never mentions downloading Visual Studio but just says install it and provides the link and he never mentions installing Eclipse but just says to download it so I think it's a wash.

It's not unfair, it's sloppy.

I think it was unfair. He tried to name every single little step for the Android one, and then he just threw together all the WP7 steps into one step, and he even skipped a few..like I don't know...downloading Visual Studio?!

His comparison is hilarious.

Also, shouldn't there be a mention of the price of Visual Studio? It might be easier to download Eclipse than buy Visual Studio

Visual studio is free: http://www.microsoft.com/express/Phone/

Thanks for pointing that out (Express versions are free). You wouldn't know it from looking at that page, since the word "free" doesn't appear anywhere on it! They do mention it in passing on the next page, though.

I submitted the link because I thought it was interesting what Microsoft employees push as being platform advantages. I fundamentally agree with the above comments about the nature of the article - but that's precisely what makes it worth reading.

How representative of a developers daily work! Now let's see Windows 7 vs Commodore 64 for Hello World…

Which one will be easier to maintain?

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