As software becomes more complex, the tools programmers use and their mastery of them play a large part in their success rate. One of the most enduring tools is the utility make. First invented in 1970, make still turns up as the central engine in most programming projects--it even builds the Linux kernel. And although it's not what many would consider a power tool, countless programmers swear by it. "Make is arguably one of the most important tools a programmer has, next to his editor, compiler, and debugger, in that order," says Robert Mecklenburg, author of the new edition of "Managing Projects with GNU Make, Third Edition" (O'Reilly).
The premise behind make is simple: after you change source files and want to rebuild your program or other output files, make checks timestamps to see what has changed and rebuilds just what you need, without wasting time rebuilding other files. But on top of this simple principle, make layers a rich collection of options that lets you manipulate multiple directories, build different versions of programs for different platforms, and customize your builds in other ways. This edition focuses on the GNU version of make, which has deservedly become the industry standard. GNU make contains powerful extensions that this book explores. It's also popular because it's free software and provides a version for almost every platform, including a version for Microsoft Windows as part of the free Cygwin project. "Managing Projects with GNU make, 3rd Edition" provides guidelines on meeting the needs of large, modern projects. Also added are a number of interesting advanced topics such as portability, parallelism, and use with Java. Author Robert Mecklenburg has used make for decades with a variety of platforms and languages. In this book he zealously lays forth how to get your builds to be as efficient as possible, reduce maintenance, avoid errors, and thoroughly understand what make is doing. Chapters on C++ and Java provide makefile entries optimized for projects in those languages. The author even includes a discussion of the makefile used to build the book. To order your copy or for more information, see: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/make3/ or call 1-800-998-9938 or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Managing Projects with GNU Make, 3rd Edition Robert Mecklenburg Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0-596-00610-1, 300 pages, $29.95 US, $43.95 CA http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/make3/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to cancel a subscription to this newsletter, or add subscriptions to other topics, go to http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/home For non-automated human help email [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----------------------------------------------------------------
