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0 pointscerved1y ago0 comments

<3 GNU Make

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4 comments · 1 top-level

ontouchstart1y ago· 3 in thread

Make is a powerful self-documentable tool. It can hide tons of complicated dependencies implementation details behind a simple and universal CLI.

subjectsigma1y ago

If you want to use make, power to you, it’s definitely a useful tool. (What I’m trying to say is I’m bashing make, not you.)

That being said, I absolutely hate make, there are so many footguns and weird quirks and implicit behavior that always end up biting me.

I find that 90% of the time what I actually want is a command runner like Just (https://github.com/casey/just) and have the make file contain the absolute sheer minimum required to build code.

While we’re at it, CMake is another build tool with the same problems as make - powerful, with an ugly syntax, unintuitive semantics, hidden dragons, and a manual that’s torturous to read.

petr251020181y ago

I agree too, Just (and others) are better as a pure entry point. But when you come to projects that already have Makefiles, or you know you have just one less thing to install in a container... you use Make.

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ontouchstart1y ago

These days people have a tendency to grab a latest and shiniest tools when the existing ones are hard to use. Because it takes more effort to understand them than install new ones.

With LLM, we might have a chance to explore the capabilities and deeper ideas in them. If I have enough LLM budget (time and money wise), I might spend more on using awk to build super agents. GNU manuals are perfect context for these kinds of usages.

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4 comments · 1 top-level

ontouchstart1y ago· 3 in thread

Make is a powerful self-documentable tool. It can hide tons of complicated dependencies implementation details behind a simple and universal CLI.

subjectsigma1y ago

If you want to use make, power to you, it’s definitely a useful tool. (What I’m trying to say is I’m bashing make, not you.)

That being said, I absolutely hate make, there are so many footguns and weird quirks and implicit behavior that always end up biting me.

I find that 90% of the time what I actually want is a command runner like Just (https://github.com/casey/just) and have the make file contain the absolute sheer minimum required to build code.

While we’re at it, CMake is another build tool with the same problems as make - powerful, with an ugly syntax, unintuitive semantics, hidden dragons, and a manual that’s torturous to read.

petr251020181y ago

I agree too, Just (and others) are better as a pure entry point. But when you come to projects that already have Makefiles, or you know you have just one less thing to install in a container... you use Make.

1 more reply

ontouchstart1y ago

These days people have a tendency to grab a latest and shiniest tools when the existing ones are hard to use. Because it takes more effort to understand them than install new ones.

With LLM, we might have a chance to explore the capabilities and deeper ideas in them. If I have enough LLM budget (time and money wise), I might spend more on using awk to build super agents. GNU manuals are perfect context for these kinds of usages.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse