[Fwd: RE: Graphical makefile generators]

[Tristan Van Berkom]

Cross-posting this back to the list.

tried to post directly back to the list, but
as you can see, it didn't work :-(


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Graphical makefile generators
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 11:56:13 -0500
From: Kim, Brian - AES <address@hidden>
To: Tristan Van Berkom <address@hidden>


See, we're trying to come up with *nix (particularly Linux) tools for 
programmers who are used to the Visual */IDE way of doing things. These 
developers are already used to using GUIs for all their programming, compilation 
and debugging needs and since *nix already provides GUIs for programming and 
debugging, the compilation part seemed like a natural step.

Having said that, idealistically, you're absolutely right that developers in 
theory should know everything about their tools and how they should be used and 
how they're put together (i.e., you write a makefile that make reads and uses to 
call your compiler, which reads your source code, compiles it, links it and 
spits out a binary executable), but there has been a steady trend towards 
greater and greater abstraction and toward increased usability. Along those 
lines, my bosses believe that creating a GUI in which you just choose which 
files you want visually is easier than having to manually edit the makefile by hand.

Brian

As an aside, I'm sure that at some point, people said that all developers should 
have a fundamental knowledge of computer assembly and processor function, 
despite their use of high-level languages, but we've moved away from those more 
archaic forms of programming (for the most part) for good reason. While what I 
learned about assembly and processor function (and even compiler design) at 
school helps me with some design decisions, it's not completely necessary, 
except in a few unusual cases. And certainly, not having to learn it is much 
easier. =-P


        -----Original Message-----
        

        This strikes me as a strange question :-/
        
          * Why would a "CLI-wary" pc user be compiling software ?
        
          * Why shouln't a developer be expected to use a CLI ?
        
          * Why shouln't a developer be expected to have a minimal
            understanding of build scripts ?
        
        (I'm just curious)
        
        I dont think what you are looking for exists (as a build script
        is highly context specific to the software and its tree), I think
        the closest thing is a "live-software-update" tool which will
        download a source package, run make and make install.
        (something like `emerge' on gentoo systems, but even that is CLI based)
        
        Cheers,
                                                 -Tristan
        
        


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