Had another 48hr game jam this weekend...

[H. S. Teoh]

On Tue, Sep 03, 2013 at 06:22:37AM +0100, Iain Buclaw wrote:
> On 2 September 2013 22:14, Ramon <spam at thanks.no> wrote:
[...]
> > (My major reason to go GUI for programming is the auto*
> > /configure/m4/makefile mess. Having that handled by some build in
> > magic is cool. Which, if I'm not mistaken is less of an issue with D
> > (dub, etc?))

That's a step backwards! Do yourself a favor and use a *real* build
system, like scons or tup. *Anything* but make, which is a hack on top
of a patch to a broken hack of patch of a simplistic system stretched
beyond its original design capabilities.


[...]
> Autotools is only as much of a mess as you make it.  I prefer it
> because it is versatile and portable.
> 
> Versatile - ie: Debian rules.conf files used to build binary pacakges
> from source are built ontop of the make system... there are 40,000+
> packages for all sorts of applications built by them.
> Portable - ie: If I give you a set of sources and a configure/Makefile
> to build them, I can happily guarantee you can put it on a machine
> powered by SPARC, ARM, MIPS, Xtensa... and the tools will be available
> for you to at least configure the sources, and hopefully build (so
> long as was written to be portable :)
[...]

It's also a magnificent 16-storey fortress of cards that comes crashing
down in the ugliest, unfriendliest sort of way when you do something
contrary to its 150 unwritten rules enforced solely via convention. That
it *does* work, I have no doubt, but its usability rivals that of D's
current IDE situation. :-P

The problem is that unless you're an 8th circle black belt in
autotools-fu, most likely whatever autoconf.m4 (or whatever it is that
you write these days) you write is utter garbage that will break left,
right, center, and behind, when someone so much as sneezes at it. I
rather be spending my time writing code than learning 150 unwritten
conventions of what is expected in which obscure corner by which
inscrutable component of the autotools "suite", thank you very much.
You're more than welcome to write my autotools scripts for me to make my
program compile on obscure platforms I've never heard the existence of.
Me, I'll be over here with tools that don't trigger apocalyptic compile
catastrophes when I lack arcane knowledge of obscure tomes of ancient
documentation that only the initiated can comprehend. :)


T

-- 
My program has no bugs! Only undocumented features...