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Comment by svnpenn | Hacker News Reader

> With this release it is now possible to install and activate compilers from the Windows command prompt directly.

> Assuming an MSYS2 installation is present in C:\msys64, necessary decompression tools can be installed from the Windows command prompt

Huh? I would think the whole point of running from command prompt would be that MSYS2 is not needed. And the reality is its probably not. Someone would just need to reimplement the Bash script as a PowerShell script.

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There are dedicated installers for Windows if that is what you want: https://dlang.org/download.html

I never used the "install.sh" but just tried and since I have Windows git installed (which comes with MSYS2) it just worked without any issues.

> Someone would just need to reimplement the Bash script as a PowerShell script.

... and then maintain it.

Installing MSYS2 to run a bash script is like deploying an A-10 Warthog to light the fuse for one of those fountain fireworks.

There are much better ways to install things in windows. Such as MSI files if you need to change paths and registry entries. Chocolatey if you want a 'aptget' like usage, there are several of these types. Using bash to install something is unique. I personally am a fan of in place portable install, unzip, run exe, done.

Anyone who doesn't already have a bash environment installed on Windows isn't the target of install.sh.

Any bash environment on Windows will do. install.sh serves a specific use case for those who need it. It installs dmd in the user's home directory along with a script that enables/disables that specific version in the environment, so multiple dmd versions can be installed side-by-side, and the user can switch between versions as needed. It's a convenience script, more than anything else. More suited for people used to developing in Linux who need to work in Windows from time to time (with or without WSL) than regular Windows developers. The latter group will certainly prefer the Windows installer.

> Assuming an MSYS2 installation is present in C:\msys64

Wow, really? Hardcoded paths in 2020?

I've read it differently, the line below shows an example that begins with 'C:\msys64' prefix. So perhaps this was a way to say that the user doesn't have to install msys to that folder.

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