Project description is AI generated, even the HN post is AI generated, why should I spend any energy looking into your project when all you're doing is just slinging AI slop around and couldn't be bothered to put any effort in yourself?
Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
81–90 of 181 posts
Re: Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
#82If you think cmake isn't very good, the solution isn't to add more layers of crap around cmake, but to replace it. Cmake itself exists because a lot of humans haven't bothered to read the gnu make manual, and added more cruft to manage this. Please don't add to this problem. It's a disease
As much of a dog as cmake is, "just use make!" does not solve many of the problems that cmake makes a go at. It's like saying go write assembler instead of C because C has so many footguns.
GNU Make has a debugger. This alone makes it far superior to every other build tool I've ever seen. The cmake debugging experience is "run a google search, and try random stuff recommended by other people that also have no idea how the thing works". This shouldn't be acceptable.
Re: Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
#83Cmake is infamously not a build system. It is a build system generator.
This is now a build system generator generator. This is the wrong solution imho. The right solution is to just build a build system that doesn’t suck. Cmake sucks. Generating suck is the wrong angle imho.
Re: Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
#84“Show HN” has really become a Claude code showcase in the last 6 months, maybe it's time to sunset the format at this point …
Re: Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
#85“Show HN” has really become a Claude code showcase in the last 6 months, maybe it's time to sunset the format at this point …
Yup, I read "— think Cargo, but for C/C++." and closed the tab.
Re: Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
As much of a dog as cmake is, "just use make!" does not solve many of the problems that cmake makes a go at. It's like saying go write assembler instead of C because C has so many footguns.
GNU Make has a debugger. This alone makes it far superior to every other build tool I've ever seen. The cmake debugging experience is "run a google search, and try random stuff recommended by other people that also have no idea how the thing works". This shouldn't be acceptable.
That hasn't been true for a few years at least. https://www.jetbrains.com/help/clion/cmake-debug.html is has had CMake debugging since cmake 3.27. Ditto for vscode and probably other C IDEs I am not familiar with. So does Gradle for Java. GNU make is hardly exclusive.
Re: Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
#87Compared to Conan, what are the advantages?
Craft has project management and generates starter project structure. You can generate header and source files with boilerplate starter code. Craft manages the building of the project so you don’t need to write much CMake. You can also save project structures as templates and instantiate those templates in new projects ready to go.
Re: Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
#88Feedback of someone who is used to manage large (>1500) software stack in C / C++ / Fortran / Python / Rust / etc: - (1) Provide a way to compile without internet access and specify the associated dependencies path manually. This is absolutely critical. Most 'serious' multi-language package managers and integration systems are building in a sandbox without internet access for security reasons and reproducibility reas…
> Never ever build in '-03 -march=native' by default. This is always a red flag and a sign of immaturity.
Perhaps you can see how there are some assumptions baked into that statement.
Re: Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
#89The least painful C/C++ build tool I've used is xmake https://github.com/xmake-io/xmake The reason why I like it (beyond ease-of-use) is that it can spit out CMakeLists.txt and compile_commands.json for IDE/LSP integration and also supports installing Conan/vcpkg libraries or even Git repos. set_project("myapp") set_languages("c++20") add_requires("conan::fmt/11.0.2", {alias = "fmt"}) add_requires("vcpkg::fmt", {alia…
Similar to premake I have never been a fan of the global state for defining targets. Give me an object or some handle that I call functions on/pass to functions. CMake at some point ended up somewhat right with that to going to target based defining for its stuff and since I've really learned it I have been kinda happy with it.
Re: Show HN: I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++
#90Feedback of someone who is used to manage large (>1500) software stack in C / C++ / Fortran / Python / Rust / etc: - (1) Provide a way to compile without internet access and specify the associated dependencies path manually. This is absolutely critical. Most 'serious' multi-language package managers and integration systems are building in a sandbox without internet access for security reasons and reproducibility reas…
> Never ever build in '-03 -march=native' by default. This is always a red flag and a sign of immaturity. Perhaps you can see how there are some assumptions baked into that statement.
What assumptions would that be?
Shipping anything built with -march=native is a horrible idea. Even on homogeneous targets like one of the clouds, you never know if they'll e.g. switch CPU vendors.
The correct thing to do is use microarch levels (e.g. x86-64-v2) or build fully generic if the target architecture doesn't have MA levels.