Why should I use the git bash only?

[jan-vcapgemini]

As an IDEasy user I want to use other terminals like CMD or PowerShell why is it recommended to use the git bash only?

[hohwille]

There are many reasons why we promote a POSIX shell like bash or zsh:

• Such shell is available and compatible cross-platform. It is getting more and more common that you have mixed platforms in your teams. We do not want to exclude users on Linux or Mac because the rest of the team is using Windows. I assume you also support a code of conduct with an attitude of welcoming inclusion of developers instead of exclusion.
• Windows CMD is a shell with a very long legacy history. It is only maintained for compatibility but since decades no real new features or improvements have been implemented in CMD. Instead it is full of pitfalls and confusing effects (e.g. delayed-expansion).
• When PowerShell came out, it sounded promising and it has some really nice design ideas (structured data in pipes, security by design). However, it never made the break-through and established to the majority of developers - especially it never really reached foot beyond Windows systems.
• Please consider that CMD never had and never will support auto-completion, what is a standard feature in bash or zsh supported well for IDEasy. For PowerShell auto-completion was later added but of course in its own proprietary way. This enforces .NET coding and we do not have the resources and the knowledge in our team to support this. We already put huge effort to concentrate our entire code-base on one programming language that is Java and we do all we can to avoid adding other stuff that we cannot guarantee to maintain.
• We also do not want to exclude users that "speak" only CMD or PowerShell. However, we consider and encourage POSIX shells as the "international language" of developers (like English became the major language of human communication for international exchange in the web). If you follow this recommendation, you will be able to reuse your knowledge and habits also in remote-server and cloud environments (e.g. using SSH), what will be very beneficial for your future career.
• In general we provide an integration on Windows to make IDEasy work also in CMD and PowerShell. Also we still want to improve that and happily welcome PRs for that. So if you have to or want to work with one of this Windows only shells, you can call ide commands directly without being forced to open an extra bash session.
• However, we have already wasted or invested a lot of time for CMD or PowerShell only bugs in devonfw-ide and IDEasy. Instead we would like to focus on more important features and bugfixes in other areas since all these problems can be avoided if developers simply get used to the "international language" of POSIX shells. So support for CMD or PowerShell is there but will never become first-class citizens.
• Since you are already here: If you are Windows user, please also consider installing and getting used to Microsoft Terminal that we strongly recommend to improve your productivity. It supports opening multiple shells (even mixed types) in a single tabbed window to increase your productivity and a more structured and focused way of working.