Before joining Google Cloud, I wasn’t programming as much as I used to. So when I joined up the last build system I had used with any regularity was ANT. Upon getting back in the routine of programming, I started down that path again, and immediately stopped. I did not want to deal with ANT and XML when I started back up. I also wasn’t doing anything even tangentially related to Java. So no, I’m not using ANT. I stopped doing single build files altogether and settled for folders of bash scripts.
This was… unsustainable.
Enter Mark Mandel and his constant exhortations to use Makefiles. Eventually I listened to him, and now instead of folders of scripts, or line after line of XML, I have giant Makefiles.
Make is awesome. And I know it is for more than just pushing files around, but that’s what I use it for. And I love it.
I’m running a short series on a number of productivity tips and tricks I’ve learned. Many will be about Google Cloud. Some will not. I hope these help someone else learn to love Makefiles.
tpryan.blog 