just-flake VS .files

I've been using this on almost all of my projects, and am really pleased with it. Shell autocompletion is a nice bonus. If you also Nix, checkout `just-flake`:

https://github.com/juspay/just-flake

Makefiles are an eerily lisplike turing tarpit. I hand wrote the makefiles for my projects, they generate wonderfully organized build trees. Hell I use makefiles to manage my dotfiles repository, even blogged about it.

https://www.matheusmoreira.com/articles/managing-dotfiles-wi...

The sanest way I've found to write makefiles is to think of it as a tool that maps input paths to output paths. When compiling a program, I want to map source/program.c to build/$(config)/program. So I write pattern rules that do just that. Then I write make functions to convert paths in some tree to paths in another tree, which makes it easy to declare dependencies which then match the pattern rules. These functions are then helped by lots and lots of project specific variables to organize things.

Using make without phony targets is insane. Without phony targets, I'd need to type things like "make build/aarch64/executable" in order to get a build started. So I use phony targets for everything.

It got to the point I created a phony-targets shell script which parses make's database output and processes it into a sort of help text for any given makefile's phony targets interface:

https://github.com/matheusmoreira/.files/blob/master/~/.loca...

I think I'm the only person insane enough to use a makefile for this.

https://github.com/matheusmoreira/.files/blob/master/GNUmake...

https://www.matheusmoreira.com/articles/managing-dotfiles-wi...

It even supports the XDG stuff.

I (ab)use make to manage my dotfiles.

https://github.com/matheusmoreira/.files/blob/master/GNUmake...

I'm surprised at how well this thing works every time I use it. I even blogged about it.

https://www.matheusmoreira.com/articles/managing-dotfiles-wi...

Recently made a tool that processes the make database and prints the phony targets and their dependencies:

https://github.com/matheusmoreira/.files/blob/master/~/.loca...

I use it as a sort of makefile help command. Works surprisingly well too.

The real makefile that I use and wrote about has some features that I didn't get around to describing in the blog post. Also has a ton of comments.

https://github.com/matheusmoreira/.files/blob/master/GNUmake...

The metaprogramming template I described is used to implement XDG Base Directories. The links take the XDG variables into account while the real files live in their default locations inside the repository.

Android allows you to swap the virtual keyboard. I use unexpected keyboard which is also free software. It's excellent for programming. Before that I used Hacker's Keyboard which has actual arrow keys.

Termux also has a configurable bar at the bottom where you can map any keys you want. I use it for function and arrow keys plus a bunch of common symbols.

Here's an example from my dotfiles:

https://github.com/matheusmoreira/.files/blob/38565320fefb92...