Localized Binaries - The Plot Thickens

The engineer has demonstrated that it is no longer possible to build just the resource binaries; it is now necessary to build the entire blinking product.

"Why is that?" I ask.

"We've improved the makefile," he replies. The makefile is a script used by the make command to build binaries.

"That doesn't feel like an improvement to me," I venture. "Why can't I just build the two or three resource binaries I need? I don't need all of the executables and other rot."

"Yes, well, we've improved the makefile."

"But there was a small, localized makefile that lived in each of the directories of the resource binaries I wanted. What happened to them?"

"We improved the main makefile by rolling all of those lower-level makefiles into it."

That's a hint to me that they improved it for the purpose of creating all of the files that go into the installer, but that's far and away more files than I want. It also means that it's probably going to take me a half-hour now to build binaries that used to take about six seconds each.

Had they been following good I18n hygiene, they'd have asked themselves (or me, even) whether there were costs associated with consolidating all of the lower-level makefiles and eliminating the possibility of rebuilding except in this huge batch. The costs don't really affect them that much, though they'll slow me down somewhat.

It's an "improvement."