Building and modifying Linux Kernel with Visual Studio | Hacker News Reader

Building and modifying Linux Kernel with Visual Studio

sysprogs.com

91 pointsMorgawr36 comments

Featured also yesterday https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7459234 with 85 points and 27 comments.

I'm sorry I didn't see it, and apparently the link is different too!

I'll be more thorough next time I submit a link, my apologies. Oh well, more news won't hurt I hope :)

I love this. I'm getting more and more OS/tools agnostic these days and appreciate what OSX, Windows and Linux have to offer me.

No, just no! Stop this madness!

Lol, i imagined Stallman saying this

I have to admit - when I first saw this I heard that record scratch sound and the universe stopped for a moment.

Technically-speaking, this is pretty cool thing. Socially, this is so wrong on so many levels, I'm surprised no one has done it before.

We could probably power a small city with the electricity generated by future-Stallman spinning in his grave over this.

Though, we also have to allow that he might become zombie-Stallman.

"We could probably power a small city with the electricity generated by future-Stallman spinning in his grave over this." lol, this part killed me

"It's freedom in negative dimension."

Jeez.... Why being so religious about technology ? It's only "stuff"

You can use VS for python too: https://pytools.codeplex.com/

Why?

Because the Visual Studio debugger is the most advanced, wonderful, and beautiful (if that's a thing) debugger ever written.

Just step back and think for a minute why that is the case.

Is it because Microsoft has always invested heavily in development tools to encourage development of Windows software?

I don't think that's the case when VS bundle is priced in thousands of dollars. They just want to make good product.

Because it's proprietary, and other debuggers aren't allowed to copy it?

If you're implying that it's because code written on/for Windows is more buggy, remove that chip from your shoulder.

Actually you're right. I stepped over the line. I don't use Windows products but Windows does make incredible software.

Because writing good debuggers is unglamorous hard work.

Actually, I think the VS C++ debugger is only decent - not great, just decent. I prefer the Borland debugger kernel, seen these days in Embarcadero Delphi and C++ Builder, the CPU view in particular. Although if you're working with mixed native and .NET code, it's quite good.

VS's ability to comprehend C++ code and provide meaningful code completion, follow symbol references, etc. even when it isn't able to compile the C++ is excellent, however.

I keep my code portable to Windows soley for the purpose of getting to use the Visual Studio debugger. Likewise, Windows developers should write portable code so they can use valgrind.

No need for valgrind when using memory safe languages :)

Are your memory safe languages also concurrency/data-race safe? (<3 valgrind DRD)

The wonders of FP.

"Often time when using high level algebraic languages we have a tendency to do things in a way that looks the best, or in the shortest number of statements. Often completely ignoring what will execute fastest." - Donald Knuth The Art Of Programming Volume 1 Second Edition Preface X.

But its the most maintainable so 99% of the time that's the right choice.

It has a steep learning curve, but the package Microsoft calls "debugging tools for windows" (windbg, cdb, kd) really puts the VS debugger to shame, to the point where I am frustrated when I try to use it. If you want to point and click your way through variables I guess VS is OK, but if you want everything you might ever want to know about a process it is frustrating.

You can use the WinDbg debugging engine as your debugging engine in Visual Studio, which allows you to combine the benefits of the IDE with the power of WinDbg virtually seamlessly.

“The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it.” - Linus Torvalds.

That's a great question. Here's my take on it: I switched from Windows to Linux over a decade ago...but as somebody that has to often write a lot of C/C++ code, man do I miss Visual C++. I've gone through all the IDEs (Eclipse, Code::Blocks, Anjuta, QtCreator, etc). QtCreator comes close for me, but I feel most comfortable with Sublime Text and a terminal for compiling/debugging/profiling.

Visual C++'s intellisense actually worked...not perfectly, but much better than what I've seen on Linux (QtCreator is close). Their debugger quality, source control integration, profiler integration, target code quality, compiler error messages/feedback, a call browser (a feature I still can't find on any other IDE, not the same as grep)...all wonderful. All of that stuff can be leveraged for writing cross platform code, including the Linux kernel. I know it sounds insane to use a Windows-specific IDE, but VC++ is that good of an IDE. Personally I would think it's way more trouble than it's worth, but apparently the OP felt otherwise :)

I don't have many good things to say about Microsoft's products, but for Visual Studio I only have praise. MS has always excelled with compilers, languages, development tools. People mock Steve Ballmer for his "developers, developers, developers!!!" rant, but IMO MS's dev toolchain is a big part of how they attracted developers and achieved market domination.

I don't suppose you've heard of KDevelop?

I have and forgot to mention it. Good IDE, but still not on par with VS IMO.

Have you heard of JetBrains' C++ IDE? http://blog.jetbrains.com/objc/2014/02/jetbrains-c-ide-statu...

In all honesty, it's not even close to VS. As a lifelong MS hater, even I have to admit that they sure know how to produce an amazing IDE.

Now if only I could count on proper C99 support from VS!

(never gonna happen...)

Wasn't this posted yesterday as well?

no just no! why would you do that....

Reply on news.ycombinator.com