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

[Jochen Eisinger]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 10:12 AM, Mark Rowe <mrowe at apple.com> wrote:

>
> On 2013-01-31, at 00:59, Jochen Eisinger <jochen at chromium.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Mark Rowe <mrowe at apple.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On 2013-01-31, at 00:48, Adam Barth <abarth at webkit.org> wrote:
>>
>> >>> I would consider changing or improving gyp's syntax to be on the table
>> >>> if it was needed to reach the goal.
>> >>
>> >> For what it’s worth, I also find the gyp syntax to be unpleasant. It
>> feels as though it was optimized for being processed by a machine rather
>> than for being written and maintained by humans.
>> >
>> > Unlike xcodeproj files.  :)
>>
>> Don’t get me wrong, Xcode projects suck for hand-editing too. However,
>> they’re not intended to be edited by hand. Gyp files are, and so the
>> expected level of human readability is much higher.
>>
>
> Many of us are actually editing the Xcode projects by hand, either because
> they don't have Xcode or don't know how to use it. (Yes, that includes
> coming up with a bunch of new UUIDs by hand)
>
>
> I wasn’t trying to suggest that current situation is a good one, only that
> if it would be easier to get momentum on switching to something like gyp if
> the replacement’s syntax was friendlier. Particularly when the people that
> need to be convinced to switch, and who’ll have to adapt their workflow,
> are those that are editing the project files in a nice GUI.
>

Agreed.

Another option is to add a webkit-patch command for modifying the build
files. That way, the syntax doesn't need to be overly human friendly. There
was also some attempt to write a tool to add files automatically:
https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=61772  I would expect that such a
tool becomes easier if it would only modify one source of truth and
generates all other artifacts such as Xcode projects from it.

best
-jochen



>
> - Mark
>
>
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