October 2, 2022

Windows -- my micromount database

Doing software development on Windows is something entirely new to me, so you are likely to find my covering some things that are very basic for a Windows veteran.

Years ago, I worked up a Ruby on Rails application to manage my database of micro mineral specimens in my collection. Rails is a nightmare and a train wreck, and I finally had enough of it. I converted my application to a ruby/gtk2 application and have been using that with overall satisfaction for many years now. But it only runs on linux. I have some friends who are interested in my program, but of course they only have windows machines available to them.

I probably should see just how hard it would be to get the ruby code running on Windows. All of this used to be all but impossible, but as of Windows 10, I am finding Windows to be a less hostile environment for software development. As much as I like ruby, I am finding Python to be the "path in the mainstream" and ruby seems to be of interest to fewer people all the time. The writing is on the wall.

My first task is to figure out how to make postscript print when printed from a Windows machine. On linux this "just works", but postscript files are alien entities on a Windows system.


Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Adventures in Computing / tom@mmto.org