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It does not miss it, just ignores it. The author states that there are lots of things we can improve but the point is that we have too many variations on the th

It does not miss it, just ignores it. The author states that there are lots of things we can improve but the point is that we have too many variations on the theme without converging to a solution that has few (or no) dependencies and comes with built-in build knowledge and the ability to discover what you want rather than make you declare it. Such a tool should be: - Zero (or few) dependencies. Likely written in plain C (or C++, D, Rust) and compiled to distribute in binary form. - Cross-platform - Support any mix of project languages and build tasks. - Recognizes standard folder hierarchies for popular projects. - Easy enough to learn. Not overly verbose (looking at you, XML). Similar to Make if possible. Examples of the auto-discovery: It can find "src", "inc", and "lib" directories then look inside and see .h files then make some educated guesses to build the dependency tree of header and source files (even with mix of C and C++). Or it could see a Rails app and figure out to invoke the right Rake commands, perhaps checking for the presence of an asset pipeline etc. Or a Node.js project. It could check for GIT or SVN and make sure any sub-modules have been checked out.

danielweber 12y ago
The dependencies thing is a killer. I remember a Windows developer co-worker insisting that everyone had the .NET runtime installed, and after shipping it turned out that most of our customers didn't have it installed, to which he finally said, "well, I always have it installed." (To be fair, I should have pressed him harder, and I did ask the question twice, but because I'd never built against the runtime I was unprepared for any challenge.) Almost every new project I download starts with a sad, manual, and demoralizing installation of a bunch of third-party stuff that you have to google to find out what's missing. And it's not educational at all, because in a few years all these tools will now be obsolete. (The best project I ever encountered was the Stripe CTF, which almost always used just one command to install a complete working copy of everything you needed and didn't have. I'm still impressed with that.)
gyepi 12y ago
Some of these requirements should be built into any build tool. However, most can be added easily enough: For instance, redux [https://github.com/gyepisam/redux https://github.com/gyepisam/redux] is written in Go (not compiled for binary distribution, but I could add that), is cross platform, supports any mix of languages and tasks, is very easy to learn. It uses shell scripts to create targets so everything is scriptable. Stuff like recognizing standard folder hierarchies and auto-discovery can be added with small scripts or tools. It can be as simple as you want or as complex as you need.

danielweber 12y ago

The dependencies thing is a killer. I remember a Windows developer co-worker insisting that everyone had the .NET runtime installed, and after shipping it turned out that most of our customers didn't have it installed, to which he finally said, "well, I always have it installed." (To be fair, I should have pressed him harder, and I did ask the question twice, but because I'd never built against the runtime I was unprepared for any challenge.) Almost every new project I download starts with a sad, manual, and demoralizing installation of a bunch of third-party stuff that you have to google to find out what's missing. And it's not educational at all, because in a few years all these tools will now be obsolete. (The best project I ever encountered was the Stripe CTF, which almost always used just one command to install a complete working copy of everything you needed and didn't have. I'm still impressed with that.)

gyepi 12y ago

Some of these requirements should be built into any build tool. However, most can be added easily enough: For instance, redux [https://github.com/gyepisam/redux https://github.com/gyepisam/redux] is written in Go (not compiled for binary distribution, but I could add that), is cross platform, supports any mix of languages and tasks, is very easy to learn. It uses shell scripts to create targets so everything is scriptable. Stuff like recognizing standard folder hierarchies and auto-discovery can be added with small scripts or tools. It can be as simple as you want or as complex as you need.