How long it takes to set up a dev environment and push to cloud service?
With appengine, 1) I sign up in 5 minutes, 2) clone an app in python or Java, 3) use my favorite free ide to edit the code 4) appcfg.py update
Also, if I don't have any of the tools like git I just type: sudo apt-get git-core
Heroku on AWS is just as easy.
Can you provide a link showing how easy it is to get started with F#?
Also step 2 sounds like magic and a recipe for disaster. Clone an app? What, with all its settings? Random library includes you weren't expecting?
Don't confuse well trod paths with new roads, closure and F# are both new roads, you'll need to do a bit of work yourself.
Also visual studio has a free edition these days.
Anyway, my point is don't compare apples to oranges when the author said he can't use apples.
It's my understanding it's not so easy to do that kind of learning and experimentation on Windows.
Go to http://www.asp.net/get-started.
Although I would recommend going down the MVC route as asp.net forms are sucky. http://www.asp.net/mvc
I know there's an anti-MS tendency round here, but fast experimentation is just as easy with MS these days as it is with everyone else.
The only gripe I've got with MS these days is that they seemed obsessed with videos, which are irritating as you can't go at your own pace (i.e. faster) and it's a nightmare when you just want to find that way of doing x that you remember seeing in the video but not at which point.
It's much worse with Java. Instance startup times are a lot higher.
> Clone an app? What, with all its settings? Random library includes you weren't expecting?
In Python, at least, you just edit app.yaml and change app name and version. If there is a settings file, you also edit it. And libraries that are not provided by GAE should be included in the app, so, you are bundling dependencies Java-style.
> Also visual studio has a free edition these days.
Unfortunately running Windows takes away many nice things for developers.
>Unfortunately running Windows takes away many nice things for developers.
This. Having essentially one choice in monolithic IDE which doesn't really provide anything novel you can't get elsewhere, without a nicely integrated POSIX shell and all the useful stuff that comes with it is a net lose IMO.