Re: Moving away from make

[olafBuddenhagen]

Hi,

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 03:12:14AM +0100, Graham Percival wrote:

> I will admit there is one aspect in which I *am* spoiled, though: I am
> totally spoiled by python's readable code.  I am so accustomed to
> writing stuff like

>     cmd = compiler + ' -o ' + exe_name + src_files

> or

>     cmd = "%(compiler)s -o %(exe_name)s %(src_files)" % locals()

> that I find stuff like

>     $(CC) -o $@ $<

> silly.  The readability for casual contributors -- which is what most
> people looking at build system stuff are -- is ridiculously better in
> python than anything else.

It might be true that Python is more readable for newcomers than make
(though reading your examples, I'm not at all convinced of that...) --
but how much does that really matter? The reason casual contributors
have trouble making build system modifications, is not the syntax (which
is really easy to learn IMHO), but the fact that build systems are
inherently a very complex matter. (As you observed yourself...) The best
syntax imaginable won't do anything to change this.

-antrik-