devrc VS mask

I have been using Makefile for over 10 years in all of my projects, and here are some features I've always found lacking in Makefile:

1. There is no way to display documentation for commands and accepted parameters. Yes, you can write a special task that will display comments, but you have to copy it from project to project.

2. The need to pass named parameters when calling tasks. I want to write `make serve localhost 3000` instead of `make serve bind=localhost port=3000`

3. I've always had the need in different projects to use the same commands, so I had to copy tasks from project to project. I need a central place with commands that I can apply to any project.

4. The ability to write tasks in different languages. In some cases, it's easier to write in Python or TypeScript/Deno.

5. And most importantly, it is difficult to write commands in Makefile that can be used in different environments. For example, I need to run commands on different groups of servers: production and staging. This could look like: `make production TASK1 TASK2` or `make stage TASK1 TASK2`. In other words, the production/stage task sets up the parameters for executing tasks in a specific environment. It might be possible to call commands in this way with Makefile, but it seems too complicated.

As a result, I decided to write my own utility for task automation: https://github.com/devrc-hub/devrc

It solves all of the above problems and has other interesting features and also written in Rust .

I create some examples with loops and filters:

Another alternative I'll add is my mask CLI tool. It reads a markdown file and parses it for a command structure. Markdown code blocks are used to define bash/zsh/python/ruby/node scripts all within a single file.

I also build and maintain a Rust-based CLI tool called mask. While this doesn't run in production, it powers everything from my local development workflow to my CI and production deployment flow.

It is a new project that is currently in Alpha stage. You can download from my GitHub account and play with it. It is built using Svelte, Nw.js, and mask script running.

I mentioned elsewhere in this thread that I built a jigsaw puzzle website [1] with a Rust API backend and I launched it last week. It definitely took longer than if I had used Node, but I enjoy working with Rust much more.

Apart from that website, I have also open sourced a Rust CLI task runner [2] which uses markdown files as a command definition format. This is probably the most important tool I've ever written, as I have used it every single day since.

[1]: https://puzzlepanda.com

[2]: https://github.com/jakedeichert/mask

At the top level, there are three things: the server directory, the UI directory, and a maskfile.md file for using mask. Mask is a great tool for running scripts on your project. I use it all the time.