Re: Sick of make, is there a replacement?

in reply to OT Sick of make, is there a replacement?

The requirement is to maintain a configuration file from which software can be built, rather than have to build it manually, which leads to uncertain and untestable deliverables. Some relief from make could be obtained using the dependency management supplied with your version control system (e.g. git). But the most obvious format to replace makefiles with is XML (and lo and behold, a bit of googling leads to a tool called XMake - makefile functionality based on XML files)

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Comment on Re: Sick of make, is there a replacement?

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Re^2: Sick of make, is there a replacement? by GrandFather (Saint) on Aug 05, 2015 at 12:15 UTC
To paraphrase a sentiment often applied to regular expressions: "I had a problem so I used XML. Now I have two problems.". XML is not a solution to anything. And especially it is not a solution that provides a notionally human readable structured configuration or data management solution. XMake may provide some really smart stuff that allows make type dependency stuff easier to manage (I don't know, I've never used it). But that's surely not because of XML, it's in spite of it. Premature optimization is the root of all job security	[reply]
Re^3: Sick of make, is there a replacement? by anonymized user 468275 (Curate) on Aug 05, 2015 at 16:53 UTC
It's really a matter of taste whether one prefers XML or straight make format but frankly I would expect XML to be more familiar these days. I can agree it was an acquired taste back when I first encountered it, however. One world, one people	[reply]
Re^2: Sick of make, is there a replacement? by Anonymous Monk on Aug 05, 2015 at 11:24 UTC
Since you didn't provide a link, which of the multiple things named XMake do you mean? Are any of them actively maintained and can you attest to the tool being actually useful? The point being that choosing the build tool based purely on the language seems backwards. But if you're going to suggest an XML-based build tool, why not Ant?	[reply]
Re^3: Sick of make, is there a replacement? by anonymized user 468275 (Curate) on Aug 05, 2015 at 16:50 UTC
Depends on the OPs platform, although for linux I would have linked to http://linux.math.tifr.res.in/manuals/man/xmake.html One world, one people	[reply]

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