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Uhm... I didn't know that makefiles are that easy. Last one I looked at one it looked like it could run a spaceshuttle. Lot's of crazy stuff. Thought it would b

by Kovah 8y ago

Uhm... I didn't know that makefiles are that easy. Last one I looked at one it looked like it could run a spaceshuttle. Lot's of crazy stuff. Thought it would be super complicated, but now.. well.. will try this out.

roelschroeven 8y ago
The makefile in that article is not really a makefile though. It is just a convenient way to bundle some shell commands. The real intention of a makefile is to specify dependencies, and how to (re)build targets if they are out of date compared to their dependencies. That is traditionally used to build e.g. C or C++ projects, and can indeed quickly become very cumbersome. Almost nobody writes them by hand for larger projects. These days almost everybody uses either some makefile generator or a more modern alternative to make.
- jacoblambda 8y ago
  I find makefiles are an excellent universal interface for other build tools. If I am downloading some sourcecode off the internet I'd much prefer to be able to just type make or make build and be done with it rather than sifting through pages of instructions for how to set up and configure their build server of choice, etc.
acdha 8y ago
I think build systems are prone to this in general — I don't think I've seen a non-trivial Gulp, Webpack, etc. setup which wasn't approaching similar levels of complexity. You get to use JavaScript instead of terse symbols but at the cost of having to wrangle thousands of dependencies which will regularly conflict, require replacement, or block upgrades for awhile. The main less I take from this is that a) it still pays to keep it simple and b) as an industry we should continue focusing on reducing maintenance costs as much as we chase after the cool new project of the week.
btbuildem 8y ago
I'll take make anytime over grunt / gulp / whatever flavor of the day JS build chain nightmare is popular today.
- 52-6F-62 8y ago
  I was just having that discussion this morning. Early in my re-entry to web I was using grunt to manage the build processes, but that fell away fast— I'll either write a Makefile or a shell script to manage those builds and processes now—and I'm far more productive for it. No need for a number of plugins and yet more dependencies to manage. Though, I have to say I've seen less and less of Grunt and Gulp (etc) in modern JavaScript (especially TypeScript)
- Shorel 8y ago
  I constantly say to my colleagues that modern C++ is far easier to use than modern JavaScript. What you mention is the main reason for that claim.

by Kovah 8y ago

roelschroeven 8y ago

The makefile in that article is not really a makefile though. It is just a convenient way to bundle some shell commands. The real intention of a makefile is to specify dependencies, and how to (re)build targets if they are out of date compared to their dependencies. That is traditionally used to build e.g. C or C++ projects, and can indeed quickly become very cumbersome. Almost nobody writes them by hand for larger projects. These days almost everybody uses either some makefile generator or a more modern alternative to make.

jacoblambda 8y ago
I find makefiles are an excellent universal interface for other build tools. If I am downloading some sourcecode off the internet I'd much prefer to be able to just type make or make build and be done with it rather than sifting through pages of instructions for how to set up and configure their build server of choice, etc.

acdha 8y ago

I think build systems are prone to this in general — I don't think I've seen a non-trivial Gulp, Webpack, etc. setup which wasn't approaching similar levels of complexity. You get to use JavaScript instead of terse symbols but at the cost of having to wrangle thousands of dependencies which will regularly conflict, require replacement, or block upgrades for awhile. The main less I take from this is that a) it still pays to keep it simple and b) as an industry we should continue focusing on reducing maintenance costs as much as we chase after the cool new project of the week.

btbuildem 8y ago

I'll take make anytime over grunt / gulp / whatever flavor of the day JS build chain nightmare is popular today.

52-6F-62 8y ago
I was just having that discussion this morning. Early in my re-entry to web I was using grunt to manage the build processes, but that fell away fast— I'll either write a Makefile or a shell script to manage those builds and processes now—and I'm far more productive for it. No need for a number of plugins and yet more dependencies to manage. Though, I have to say I've seen less and less of Grunt and Gulp (etc) in modern JavaScript (especially TypeScript)
Shorel 8y ago
I constantly say to my colleagues that modern C++ is far easier to use than modern JavaScript. What you mention is the main reason for that claim.