[eclipse-dev] improving builds

["Walter Harley" <eclipse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've never been a buildmaster for a large project but I've had the honor
to work with a couple of really excellent ones over the years, Kim
included.  I've learned that building software is NOT primarily an
algorithm problem, even though developers often tend to think as if it
were.  

Coincidentally I recently blogged about some of these differences on
http://ignorancecompounded.blogspot.com/2009/01/build-languages.html .
We developers tend to treat building as if it were a deterministic,
automatic, and repeatable process that, therefore, should be
"instantaneous in principle", but the evidence simply does not support
that.  What is true in principle is irrelevant in practice.  Doing a
build is more like driving to work in the morning: you may take the same
route day after day, but it is not deterministic, automatic, repeatable,
or instantaneous.

Hurray for any attention to making builds more reliable, because we need
that!  But be aware that a developer's first instincts on how to achieve
that are probably wrong.

Thanks,
  -walter


________________________________


	I think we could *all* be doing a better job (me included) of
ensuring our builds are more reliable.  It seems we often have build or
test failures for one reason or another, with a resulting spotty success
record for weekly integration builds.  That unevenness comes to the fore
on milestone builds, like this one. 
	
	Regards, 
	Kevin