[webkit-dev] Common build system (was Re: WebKit Wishes)

[Martin Robinson]

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:20 PM, Nico Weber <thakis at chromium.org> wrote:
> http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Wadlers_Law

I've started working on an experimental gyp build for GTK+, so I have
first-hand experience as a gyp newbie editing .gyp and .gypi files.
While the aesthetics of the files haven't bothered me much, I find
that it's very easy to introduce syntax errors. I often forget a comma
or use the wrong closing parenthesis. Since the files are deeply
nested, it's easy to lose track.  Most frustratingly the error message
from the tool aren't very useful for finding the problem. I usually
resort to matching parenthesis with vim's "%" command and squinting.

Other than this, I love it so far. The build file generation is very
quick (admittedly I have only a small part of WebKit building) and it
seems to handle source generating dependencies really well. This is
one of the most painful issues we have with autotools. I also look
forward to building with ninja. :)

--Martin