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MS TextWorld: open-source engine that both generates and simulates text games

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Re: MS TextWorld: open-source engine that both generates and simulates text games

#51
post #2

> TextWorld requires Python 3 and only supports Linux and macOS systems at the moment. Truly, this is a new Microsoft.

Yes and No. I think they understand the very real limitations of Windows and how developers and power users hate it. Let's compare and contrast the two. Linux has a usable shell that has GCC, Bash, Awk, dozens of specific commands that can be piped together, Perl, Python, TCL...etc all built-in and easily composable. Windows has well...CMD which is horrible, Batch files, VBScript (deprecated), VBA, and Powershell (a…

I mostly use the msys bash that comes with git for windows in Hyper (a couple minor configs, but generally works well enough) or the VS Code terminal (same base). I do have most of what you mention setup beyond the git tools, a lot of it is transpiled for windows, though sometimes the path escaping gets annoying and there's a couple other windows isms.

I tend to use mac at home, windows at work, and linux via docker, ssh and/or VM for pretty much all targeted/test work.

Not a big fan of PS, other than some of the commands available there that aren't generally outside PS.

Re: MS TextWorld: open-source engine that both generates and simulates text games

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe this came out of an MS R&D arm that had free reign on design and it’s not some overall signal that MS has admitted defeat to Linux on the shell. I have a hard time believing this couldn’t have just as easily been windows based with the exact same amount of effort. Windows has fantastic developer tooling that I think you’re downplaying quite a bit. > Powershell is a sometimes great (mostly meh) Powershell has…

Quite a bit in my opinion. Of course if both are Turing complete the answer is nothing, but efficiency in development time and speed should be a factor. To give an example, suppose you have a directory with 20 .CSV files that are all 200 MB. This is extremely common for me and the files are much larger for many developers. Say you want to extract certain data matching a string and then sort the whole thing into a new…

for anything more complex, I often just defer to a node/js script... mostly out of more comfort, but also because it runs everywhere I want it to (linux, windows, mac), usually with minimal effort.

Re: MS TextWorld: open-source engine that both generates and simulates text games

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a bit in my opinion. Of course if both are Turing complete the answer is nothing, but efficiency in development time and speed should be a factor. To give an example, suppose you have a directory with 20 .CSV files that are all 200 MB. This is extremely common for me and the files are much larger for many developers. Say you want to extract certain data matching a string and then sort the whole thing into a new…

for anything more complex, I often just defer to a node/js script... mostly out of more comfort, but also because it runs everywhere I want it to (linux, windows, mac), usually with minimal effort.

There's obviously nothing inherantly wrong with that and it's great that you can run it anywhere. However, isn't it a shame you have to resort to that? Shouldn't there be a way to easily specify to the computer what you want without having to go so far outside the OS? Obviously this isn't Star Trek where you can ask the computer to do something and it knows exactly what you want. At some level of complexity you will have to start writing real code and at that point I agree it doesn't matter a whole lot whether you're using Python, Bash, C#, NodeJS, or Haskell. However, if you're doing something really simple like loop over some files that match a string in a directory, parse the files, and make a report, that should be easy. If your first thought is "let me go open Visual Studio"...then your OS has failed in my opinion.

Re: MS TextWorld: open-source engine that both generates and simulates text games

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for anything more complex, I often just defer to a node/js script... mostly out of more comfort, but also because it runs everywhere I want it to (linux, windows, mac), usually with minimal effort.

There's obviously nothing inherantly wrong with that and it's great that you can run it anywhere. However, isn't it a shame you have to resort to that? Shouldn't there be a way to easily specify to the computer what you want without having to go so far outside the OS? Obviously this isn't Star Trek where you can ask the computer to do something and it knows exactly what you want. At some level of complexity you will…

Fair enough... tbh, if Git for Windows, registered `.sh` and `.bash` file extensions to execute via that version of Bash, I'd be content with that... as it is, I have re/used a little bash even in windows at work (everyone has git for windows) and have certain things installed via script+chocolatey. Second pass/configuration, etc, calls a bash script in windows... The first part I also have a bash script for mac, and the second script is shared.

That said, JS/Node is often my goto... I also do a fair amount of `npm i -g UTIL` mainly out of convenience between platforms. There isn't a really universal scripting system I can completely rely on where at least one of the three aren't oddities.

I do use bash pretty much everywhere, and that's what I use ... it's just when I'm writing a script for reuse, I'm more inclined to use NodeJS.

Re: MS TextWorld: open-source engine that both generates and simulates text games

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's obviously nothing inherantly wrong with that and it's great that you can run it anywhere. However, isn't it a shame you have to resort to that? Shouldn't there be a way to easily specify to the computer what you want without having to go so far outside the OS? Obviously this isn't Star Trek where you can ask the computer to do something and it knows exactly what you want. At some level of complexity you will…

Fair enough... tbh, if Git for Windows, registered `.sh` and `.bash` file extensions to execute via that version of Bash, I'd be content with that... as it is, I have re/used a little bash even in windows at work (everyone has git for windows) and have certain things installed via script+chocolatey. Second pass/configuration, etc, calls a bash script in windows... The first part I also have a bash script for mac, and…

Gotcha. Thanks for the additional thoughts!

Re: MS TextWorld: open-source engine that both generates and simulates text games

#56
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to use Windows at work after ten years of development exclusively on Mac and Linux. Once I set up wsl at work I found that almost all of my gripes about developing on Windows were gone and a month ago I switched my home office to Windows. If you had told me two years ago that I'd be using Windows full time as a Dev environment I would have asked you what were you smoking and can I have some. I have to say thou…

What program do you use for command line work? I’ve found Powershell and Cmder clunky compared to macOS terminal and any Ubuntu terminal.

WSLtty is the only viable one if you ask me with Vim running a tad slow, but acceptable. Alacritty might soon overtake it.

Re: MS TextWorld: open-source engine that both generates and simulates text games

#57
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to use Windows at work after ten years of development exclusively on Mac and Linux. Once I set up wsl at work I found that almost all of my gripes about developing on Windows were gone and a month ago I switched my home office to Windows. If you had told me two years ago that I'd be using Windows full time as a Dev environment I would have asked you what were you smoking and can I have some. I have to say thou…

What program do you use for command line work? I’ve found Powershell and Cmder clunky compared to macOS terminal and any Ubuntu terminal.

latelly the only way I can touch windows is with the shell from git-for-windows. it is surprisingly excellent.
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