Buidl systems use too many languages: The Python build system is a great example of this. shell, make (which includes shell), m4/autoconf, Python (distutils/setup.py). . There is "language cacophony". This is ironic because I'm a fan of polyglot programming.
- But I'm not a fan of gratuitous syntax. I'm a fan of different semantics iwth meaningful syntax. Shell and make are too similar to be simailr.
Build systems use shell poorly. I've encountered this in Python and toybox.
- relates to "Shell: The Good Parts".
Makefile features and misfeatures.
- Creating output directories is annoying. (MEH you can do it up front)
- build variants: like I did in bwk repo. Need "eval".
- here docs interactve really badly. \ is used for line continuation. I found the solution in GNU Make book -- define NEWLINE.
- .ONESHELL seems like a horrible hack. Egregiously bad UI.

DESIGNING A BETTER MAKE THAT'S ALSO COMPATIBLE.

This is harder than shell because:

Make has poor semantics. I think of shell as having horrible syntax, but relatively good semantics.
Make isn't statically parseable. I'm on the fence about whether I should write an omk analogous to OSH. I shouldn't do it before Oil.

TODO: Link to old blog posts.

Pattern rules. I don't like the % syntax, but these mostly work.

I'm thinking of new syntax. Sneak peak. I mentioned that oil will have proc and func.

I think that Boil will have rule:

foo.pyc : foo.py
  @echo 'Compiling to .pyc by importing'
  python -c 'import foo'

rule foo.pyc : foo.py {
  quiet echo 'Compiling to .pyc by importing'
  . echo 'Compiling to .pyc by importing'
  python -c 'import foo'
}

Q may be a synonym for 'quiet'. I decided this didn't need new syntax. OK ls / fail-ok echo hi

The oiltool executable is like busybox: if you symlink it as osh, it implement the oil language.

If you symlink it as oil, it will do the toher language.

Nice thing: I get to write another Makefile from scratch.

I guess to design BOIL.

(boil is a good name: it's something you wait for.)