Build managers

[Russel Winder via Digitalmars-d]

On Mon, 2015-02-02 at 23:54 +1300, Rikki Cattermole via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> So I'm going to through a massive spanner in the works here.
> I want to clarify something first. I love dub and what it stands 
> for.  I
> don't want to change it.

I think there is an undercurrent that Dub does need to evolve somewhat.

> Just before dub came about, I was working on a build manager as 
> well. Except it was based heavily on Maven, but had more native 
> usage.

And I am working on the SCons tool – well not actually doing much just 
now as it all seems to work as those who use it, use it.

We should also note that Maven is rapidly following Ant into obscurity 
as Gradle takes up the central role for all build to do with JVM and 
Android.

> The reason I believe this should at least be made out in the open is 
> that we have people who want more control over their project 
> building and dub will not provide that. Especially mixing c/c++ and 
> D.
> 
> There was a recent suggestion to split dub up into a package manager 
> and
> builder. This might be a worthwhile alternative as a builder.
> 
> Here was the spec that I wrote for it:
> 
> […humans should never have to manually write XML…]

Personally I would propose that a build specification should be as 
declarative as possible but no more, i.e. there is always a need for 
an element of programming of build. Thus a framework based on an 
internal DSL has to be the right choice. SCons is on Python, Gradle is 
on Groovy. 

SCons is entirely focused on mixed C, C++, Fortran and D systems. It 
is not perfect, it needs work – not least working on Python 3.

Gradle is JVM-based, but now has C++ native code abilities. It is not 
beyond the bounds of possibility that a D capability could be created.

> 
> […]
-- 
Russel.
=============================================================================
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder at ekiga.net
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