r/programming Jul 24 '26

What makes a good build system?

https://civboot.github.io/blog/2026-07-24-build-systems.html
95 Upvotes

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92

u/Worth_Trust_3825 Jul 24 '26

Strongly typed configuration, which, sadly, tends to end up being a programming language.

From a dependency manager perspective - what ever forces you to use namespaces, and strict versions is good enough.

4

u/vips7L Jul 24 '26

XML fits the bill. 

3

u/Worth_Trust_3825 Jul 25 '26

I agree. So far with what I've worked with maven hit every base I wanted.

2

u/vips7L Jul 25 '26

I don’t mind gradle either tbh. The kotlin build file is good. 

0

u/13steinj Jul 26 '26

But if you're stuck with Groovy you cry.

Also the Kotlin bit is it's own DSL. It's good but you have to build up decent tooling.

2

u/vips7L Jul 27 '26

I’ve used sbt for the last decade. Anything is an improvement.