Re: Moving away from make

[Graham Percival]

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 03:12:14AM +0100, Graham Percival wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 10:41:05PM -0300, Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:
> > You sound spoiled.

On second thought, I really *am* spoiled: I don't want to even
notice the build system.  I view it in the same way I view food:
a waste of time that's unfortunately necessary for survival.


I mean, food is a pain.  You need to leave the house/university to
buy it, you need to carry it home, you need to cook (or otherwise
prepare) it, then eat it, then wash the dishes, and occasionally
empty the garbage depending on what you were preparing.

Now, with frozen lazagna the cooking+washing isn't so bad (since
you can eat it out the dish; you only need to wash one fork).  But
if you eat nothing but microwaved food, you get sick.  Trust me,
I've tried.  Life would be so much easier if/when they have some
kind of grey mush that provides all nutrients you need!


That's what I want from a build system.  I want a grey mush that
just works.  No problems, no confusion, no work required to
maintain it.  I want to spend time improving documentation or
fixing bugs in graphical output or adding new features!
Unfortunately that's not possible, so I'm hoping for the next best
thing: to have a build system which requires the least amount of
work, while still providing the most robust environment with the
least amount of confusion for developers.

Now, I suppose that since I have such hostility for build systems,
I really shouldn't be involved in discussing them -- I should
leave it up to people who enjoy dealing with their crap.
Unfortunately, just like the kitchen garbage in my shared
apartment, if I don't clean up the garbage from time to time,
nobody else does.

Cheers,
- Graham