.files VS ninja

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...

Under the hood, Rescript uses a build system called Ninja. Ninja is similar to Make, but cross-platform and more minimal/performant.

Really? I thought most new projects were switching to ninja[^1] and have never used it.

[^1]: https://ninja-build.org/

warning: Starting with the September 2023 release, the default triplet for vcpkg libraries will change from x86-windows to the detected host triplet (x64-windows). To resolve this message, add --triplet x86-windows to keep the same behavior. Computing installation plan... The following packages will be built and installed: * egl-registry:x86-windows -> 2022-09-20 glew:x86-windows -> 2.2.0#3 * opengl:x86-windows -> 2022-12-04#3 * opengl-registry:x86-windows -> 2022-09-29#1 * vcpkg-cmake:x64-windows -> 2023-05-04 * vcpkg-cmake-config:x64-windows -> 2022-02-06#1 Additional packages (*) will be modified to complete this operation. Detecting compiler hash for triplet x86-windows... A suitable version of powershell-core was not found (required v7.2.11) Downloading portable powershell-core 7.2.11... Downloading powershell-core... https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.2.11/PowerShell-7.2.11-win-x86.zip->C:\vcpkg\downloads\PowerShell-7.2.11-win-x86.zip Downloading https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.2.11/PowerShell-7.2.11-win-x86.zip Extracting powershell-core... error: while detecting compiler information: The log file content at "C:\vcpkg\buildtrees\detect_compiler\stdout-x86-windows.log" is: -- Downloading https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases/download/v1.10.2/ninja-win.zip -> ninja-win-1.10.2.zip... -- Configuring x86-windows CMake Error at scripts/cmake/vcpkg_execute_required_process.cmake:112 (message): Command failed: C:/vcpkg/downloads/tools/ninja/1.10.2-windows/ninja.exe -v Working Directory: C:/vcpkg/buildtrees/detect_compiler/x86-windows-rel/vcpkg-parallel-configure Error code: 1 See logs for more information: C:\vcpkg\buildtrees\detect_compiler\config-x86-windows-rel-CMakeCache.txt.log C:\vcpkg\buildtrees\detect_compiler\config-x86-windows-out.log

I thought I would share my custom installer script for the latest GitHub versions of CMake, Ninja, and Meson.

Now that you have your build system all generated you can go ahead and build everything. By default Meson will use Ninja as the build tool. Ninja is similar to Make but much much faster. You can also generate additional build systems but that's outside of the scope of this post.

There are also some other tools like https://ninja-build.org/ that you might prefer using instead

I got Ninja from https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja, latest release. I'm assuming this is a false positive?

Oh excellent, then better (and more portable!) tools are available:

http://pants.build

https://ninja-build.org

https://buck.build

and, if you hate yourself: https://bazel.build