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I've written a makefile from scratch. My challenge to you: I want a makefile that has 20 third party dependencies and can be built on osx, linux, and windows.

I've written a makefile from scratch. My challenge to you: I want a makefile that has 20 third party dependencies and can be built on osx, linux, and windows. I can do this within an hour with gradle, ant, or maven. The ecosystem doesn't exist for this in make, and anything I could come up with to make it possible would end up being a tool that would look like automake and the monstrosity that it entails.

tremon 8y ago
That's a bit unfair, because make relies on the underlying system capabilities much more than Java does, and Windows' just isn't up to snuff. But for the other platforms, autotools definitely can do what you ask.
- spookthesunset 8y ago
  > But for the other platforms, autotools definitely can do what you ask Ugg... autotools. Yeah, lets use what feel like build tools created way back in the 60's or something. Sure they "work" for some value of "work" but oh boy are they ugly and nasty. Good luck hiring anybody under the age of 40 who is gonna be willing to work on such a clunky old tool. There is a reason why the world is moving to build systems that replace the Make toolchain.
gm-conspiracy 8y ago
"osx, linux, and windows" and you've already made sure they are running the same JRE version, right?
- preordained 8y ago
  Come on...bundle your JRE. I don't know why anyone wouldn't in the age of terabyte hard drives and ubiquitous "small" apps with sizes that make a bundled JRE with all the trimmings look lightweight.
mcguire 8y ago
"I can do this within an hour with gradle, ant, or maven." For something that isn't JVM-based?
- ebiester 8y ago
  Certainly not for all but the most trivial cases, but I'd use the language's build tools. The industry has moved to language-specific build tools and ecosystems, and the article and is complaining about this in part, no?
w4tson 8y ago
And while you’re at it can you make it idempotent when building sub artifacts which inputs haven’t changed. And can it do it all incrementally in parallel too please because enterprise shops tend to have a ton of code Oh and it would be really nice if you could make it so if someone else somewhere in the org has compiled that thing then could we just use their computed binary to save the time compiling locally. THANKS! ;)

tremon 8y ago

That's a bit unfair, because make relies on the underlying system capabilities much more than Java does, and Windows' just isn't up to snuff. But for the other platforms, autotools definitely can do what you ask.

spookthesunset 8y ago
> But for the other platforms, autotools definitely can do what you ask Ugg... autotools. Yeah, lets use what feel like build tools created way back in the 60's or something. Sure they "work" for some value of "work" but oh boy are they ugly and nasty. Good luck hiring anybody under the age of 40 who is gonna be willing to work on such a clunky old tool. There is a reason why the world is moving to build systems that replace the Make toolchain.

gm-conspiracy 8y ago

"osx, linux, and windows" and you've already made sure they are running the same JRE version, right?

preordained 8y ago
Come on...bundle your JRE. I don't know why anyone wouldn't in the age of terabyte hard drives and ubiquitous "small" apps with sizes that make a bundled JRE with all the trimmings look lightweight.

mcguire 8y ago

"I can do this within an hour with gradle, ant, or maven." For something that isn't JVM-based?

ebiester 8y ago
Certainly not for all but the most trivial cases, but I'd use the language's build tools. The industry has moved to language-specific build tools and ecosystems, and the article and is complaining about this in part, no?

w4tson 8y ago

And while you’re at it can you make it idempotent when building sub artifacts which inputs haven’t changed. And can it do it all incrementally in parallel too please because enterprise shops tend to have a ton of code Oh and it would be really nice if you could make it so if someone else somewhere in the org has compiled that thing then could we just use their computed binary to save the time compiling locally. THANKS! ;)