SteveNi Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Hi A few months ago I started learning Linux at school (CLI commands and some networking stuff) and I just realized that a lot of things in Houdini seems to be "Linux-based". Like the textport (wich I haven't found any usage yet): its exactly like linux command line interface, and you can type commands like cd, ls, pwd, etc...wich are actually linux commands... Also in houdini we have the concept of starting from root and going througt the various context... Whats going on? Is houdini really based on Linux? If you could explain this fact I would really appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yon Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Yes, I had a instructor that said Houdini is actually a Linux based operating system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catchyid Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 (edited) Hi, It could be that some concepts/commands are influenced by Linux, but Houdini is definitely OS independent because you can run Houdini on Windows/Linux/Mac. In general, all applications are made of many layers, the core of the application would usually be pure C/C++ that is OS independent, then would you add more layers to make the application work on different platform, OR you can use a library that can deal with different platforms/OS. For example, you could use Qt library which handles GUI interactivity on many platforms, OR you could write your own GUI code for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Edited November 15, 2016 by catchyid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawn_kearney Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 (edited) I have NO IDEA how accurate this is, but I have heard that SideFX develops software with large studios that typically use Linux in mind, as their needs exceed those of other users with fewer technical demands. So if their needs are met, we all benefit. If any of this is true, it would make sense for them to develop tools familiar to Linux users. In reality, it may just be that Linux provides a wheel not needing reinventing. Edited November 15, 2016 by shawn_kearney Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourfather Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Some of the concepts used in Houdini like the paths in a scene (/obj/cam1, /shop/brick_wall, /out/mantra1) and the commands are influenced by Unix but are not based on Unix in the literal source code sense. I say Unix because Linux didn't exist when Prisms was written. Prisms predates Linux by at least a few years if not more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveNi Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 Quote Some of the concepts used in Houdini like the paths in a scene (/obj/cam1, /shop/brick_wall, /out/mantra1) and the commands are influenced by Unix Woundering why.....should I call SideFx for this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourfather Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 2 hours ago, SteveNi said: Woundering why.....should I call SideFx for this? It's a logical and intuitive design that everyone who used computers at the time understood. These days people tend to know very little about the computers they're using so the reasons why an application would be designed one way or another are less apparent but nevertheless the reasons are just as valid as they were almost 30 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveNi Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 Quote and the commands are influenced by Unix but are not based on Unix in the literal source code sense. So why I found the same commands and the same syntax? For example using the ls -l command you will get the context and operators in the scene, their permissions (i mean the rwx stuff) and the date of creation etc.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catchyid Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 here is an application that allows you to run a complete Linux environment on Windows : https://www.cygwin.com/ that does not mean this application, i.e. cygwin, is a linux based application because it runs only on windows. I have not looked at the code of cygwin/Houdini, but definitely Linux is open source, so it might have been possible that some functions were taken from Linux operating system, but both apps are OS independent and they have added way more code that makes the percentage of Linux stuff inside very marginal (e.g 95% of code is neutral c/c++, 5% were taken from linux open source libraries). BTW, I don't know if any part of Houdini code was actually taken from any Linux open source code, but due to the similarities you mentioned, it might have been possible, but again that does not make Houdini Linux based... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 since up until very recently 3d applications could really only be found on Unix/Irix systems, the conventions for their use would naturally be similar to the conventions found in those operating systems if you list a directory with "ls" and in Houdini you have a context that has a bunch of nodes in it, say /obj, why not have a similar command - opls, that users will be familiar with...etc etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveNi Posted November 17, 2016 Author Share Posted November 17, 2016 (edited) Ok, thank you guys for all the answers. Edited November 17, 2016 by SteveNi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post edward Posted November 18, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted November 18, 2016 On 11/15/2016 at 11:28 AM, SteveNi said: Whats going on? Is houdini really based on Linux? Short answer is no. I think you're missing a lot of computer history. Linux (1991) was influenced by Unix (1971). In fact, Linux (as the whole ecosystem, not just the kernel) is one of many variants descended from Unix. One other important Unix descendant was IRIX (1988) which ran on the graphics workstations made by Silicon Graphics (SGI) (1982). Houdini (1996) was the successor to PRISMS (1987). So all these particular commands that you're talking about are actually Unix commands, not Linux. PRISMS and Houdini used to run on IRIX on Silicon Graphics workstations, as did Maya (1998) and its predecessors. Today, most of the big 3d studios (like Pixar, Disney Animation, DreamWorks, Blue Sky, ILM, Framestore, etc) all run Linux because they used to run IRIX. Windows (1993) as you know it today wasn't used much for 3D work until the computer games industry took off. CLI in general has been around since the dawn of operating systems. Interestingly, the "ls" Unix command was an abbreviation of the "list" Multics (1964) command, which itself was a shortened form of the CTSS (1961) "listf" command (according to A Brief History of the 'ls' Command). And to complete the OS history lecture, Windows can be seen as a descendant of VMS (1977) since it was largely designed by the same developers (who had been hired away from DEC by Microsoft). And VMS of course drew inspiration from Multics amongst other OSes. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveNi Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 Thanks for THAT answer Yea actually I had Unix in my mind but I always say Linux instead of Unix (I know they are 2 different things but I always make this mistake). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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