3 ms·

Xmake gets posted here once in a while, here are some previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19610459 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=

Xmake gets posted here once in a while, here are some previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19610459 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19610459 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22583147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22583147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30696061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30696061

cbolton 2y ago
Thanks, I was curious what are the main differences to Meson (the only general build system so far that I enjoyed using). From these past discussions I gathered: Xmake's biggest advantage: it's a single binary (vs Meson requiring Python) Meson's biggest advantage (aside from popularity): it's a declarative DSL rather (vs including a full-blown programming language like Lua in Xmake) (The second point is subjective, I know some think that including a full programming language is a strength but to my eyes it's a downside that largely outweighs the Python dependency.)
- ghosty141 2y ago
  > Meson's biggest advantage (aside from popularity): it's a declarative DSL rather I personally don't consider this an advantage. We've ran into the limitations of a DSL way too often at work and at this point I prefer just having a plain programming language as an interface. This way you don't have to learn a custom DSL with its own quirsk, you always have the escape hatch of just writing custom code, and it tends to be less quirky.
  - __float 2y ago
    The "escape hatch" becomes a liability once a project becomes large enough.
    - humanrebar 2y ago
      I find that C and C++ need nontrivial code generation or environment tuning often enough that you really want a Turing complete expression syntax available.
- JNRowe 2y ago
  There is the largely feature compatible muon¹ re-implementation that doesn't require Python, it is packaged in a few distributions too. As in all things of this nature there are some caveats². It is actually pretty useful to have installed alongside meson, even if just for access to the manpages as documentation. ¹ https://git.sr.ht/~lattis/muon https://git.sr.ht/~lattis/muon ² https://muon.build/releases/edge/docs/status.html https://muon.build/releases/edge/docs/status.html

cbolton 2y ago

Thanks, I was curious what are the main differences to Meson (the only general build system so far that I enjoyed using). From these past discussions I gathered: Xmake's biggest advantage: it's a single binary (vs Meson requiring Python) Meson's biggest advantage (aside from popularity): it's a declarative DSL rather (vs including a full-blown programming language like Lua in Xmake) (The second point is subjective, I know some think that including a full programming language is a strength but to my eyes it's a downside that largely outweighs the Python dependency.)

ghosty141 2y ago
> Meson's biggest advantage (aside from popularity): it's a declarative DSL rather I personally don't consider this an advantage. We've ran into the limitations of a DSL way too often at work and at this point I prefer just having a plain programming language as an interface. This way you don't have to learn a custom DSL with its own quirsk, you always have the escape hatch of just writing custom code, and it tends to be less quirky.
- __float 2y ago
  The "escape hatch" becomes a liability once a project becomes large enough.
  - humanrebar 2y ago
    I find that C and C++ need nontrivial code generation or environment tuning often enough that you really want a Turing complete expression syntax available.
JNRowe 2y ago
There is the largely feature compatible muon¹ re-implementation that doesn't require Python, it is packaged in a few distributions too. As in all things of this nature there are some caveats². It is actually pretty useful to have installed alongside meson, even if just for access to the manpages as documentation. ¹ https://git.sr.ht/~lattis/muon https://git.sr.ht/~lattis/muon ² https://muon.build/releases/edge/docs/status.html https://muon.build/releases/edge/docs/status.html