Switched from using the fancy JavaScript build tools back to using a simple Makefile. Not only is it now reliable, but I can actually reason about what it is doing, and adding one new resource format doesn't incur a day's worth of dependency negotiation.
@pragdave Our industry got comfortable with working with impenetrable black boxes and forgot that engineering should include deep understanding and predictability.
@pragdave switching from democracy to dictatorship.
@pragdave The nice thing is that the makefile is already written. cprogramming.com/tutorial/makef…
@pragdave Makefiles are a gem hidden to most developers. Wish more would use them
@pragdave @UnixToolTip Transparency about what is going on yielding the ability to reason about it is often lost with “fancy“ programs. If something is wrong in my Word file, I usually have no idea what. In md or HTML, I can just have a look at what controls the formatting and see the problem.
@pragdave Is this for a Javascript project? Why not Rake if we're talking about easy to reason about build tools?
@pragdave @tgx_world I went through this journey too: some tools (@FormidableLabs' builder being the closest to what I needed) -> makefiles (need to hack around for composaility and namespaces) -> bash / js scripts with appened PATH
