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Build Systems Comparison

A comparison of four build systems researched during the design of a new build tool. Each system represents a distinct philosophy and set of tradeoffs.

Summaries

Make (1976)

The original build tool by Stuart Feldman. Make reads a Makefile containing rules that map targets to prerequisites and shell recipes. It uses file modification timestamps to determine what needs rebuilding and supports pattern rules (%.o: %.c) for generic transformations. Make's key weakness is its lack of a real programming language — it has evolved ad-hoc features (conditionals, functions, pattern substitution) that are awkward and error-prone. Recursive make (invoking make in subdirectories) is the standard approach for multi-directory projects, but it fragments the dependency graph, leading to both correctness and performance problems at scale. Despite its limitations, make remains the most widely used build tool due to its ubiquity and simplicity for small projects.

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#!/bin/sh

# Installation for using GMail as your preferred application
# This is for handling mime type: x-scheme-handler/mailto
#
# Place this script in your $PATH, and mark as executable
#
# Install the .desktop file:
#   cp gmail-mailto.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
#

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# small and low-configuration project Makefile (GNU make required)
# Nov 10 2023 - Jon
# usage:
#   1. place this in the directory of a small C/C++ project.
#   2. modify type= configuration option to select executable or library modes.
#   3. all c/c++ and assembler sources will be linked into a single
#      executable or library.
#   4. adjust configuration options for desired compiler and linker flags.
# examples of typical usage:
#   make clean

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How To Set Up a New SDL Android project

0. Install Android Studio

• https://developer.android.com/studio/
• TODO: describe how to install NDK packages.
• TODO: describe how to check that NDK 21 is installed.

1. Get SDL sources SDL2-2.0.12.tar.gz and extract to a location of your choice

   cd /tmp
   

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#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

void
process(const char *input)
{
    const char delim[] = { 0x0b, 0x1c, 0x0d, 0 };
    int count = 0;
    
    while (input[0] != '\0') {

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# Add this snippet to your .bashrc instead of your normal prompt (PS1) setting.

# Customize the line below further with your favorite smilies
# 😎 🙂 😊 😢 🙁 🙃
PS1='$(test $? -eq 0 && echo "\[\033[0;32m\]😎" || echo "\[\033[0;1;31m\]😢")\[\033[0m\] \W\$ '

# Set window title
case "$TERM" in
        xterm*)
                # see also man xterm(1) - "Window and Icon Titles"

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Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 2 c flour
• 1 c sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

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all ::
clean :: ; $(RM) $(TARGETS) $(foreach t,$(TARGETS),$(OBJS_$t))
.PHONY : all clean
## Configuration
CFLAGS = -Wall -W -O2 -g
# a really aggressive strip-all for ARM
STRIP = strip -s -w -R .comment\* -R .note\* -R .gnu.hash -R .ARM.exidx -R .ARM.attributes
## Rules
%.o : %.c
        $(COMPILE.c) $(if $(PKGS),$(shell pkg-config --cflags $(PKGS))) $(OUTPUT_OPTION) $<

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# Default options
CFLAGS = -Wall -W -g -O
# CFLAGS += -D_GNU_SOURCE
# OS Detection
ifeq ($(OS),Windows_NT)
X=.exe
RM=del
else
X=
endif

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#define _XOPEN_SOURCE 700
#define _POSIX_C_SOURCE 200809L
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main() {
        int s, fd[2];
        pipe(fd);
        if (!fork()) { /* child */
                dup2(fd[0], STDIN_FILENO);