aaron spink (aaronspink.delete@this.notearthlink.net) on August 12, 2019 9:45 am wrote:
> Adrian (a.delete@this.acm.org) on August 11, 2019 5:41 am wrote:
> > I suppose that there are more software developers than that and
> > program compilation scales very well with the number of cores.
> >
> Program compilation scales even better if you don't do it on your client. Its shocking that we're still
> doing that considering the technology to get off it is now almost 20+ years old. Versioning and caching
> build systems are just so much better. Vesioned build systems with caching is what should


I completely agree with you. When I am in my home, I compile everything on a server with a 24-core AMD Epyc and with 128 GB RAM, which is enough to build any project in a RAM file system.


Nevertheless, in most companies where I have worked and especially in large companies, the inertia of the IT departments is so great that attempting to implement such a workflow would be futile.

Moreover, my opinions about which programming tools are the most efficient and the most convenient differ greatly from the opinions of many colleagues. This does not matter when everyone compiles for himself and only the version control system and the file servers are common. A common compilation server would require more uniformity in the tools, which could be frustrating for those programmers who would be forced to use the tools preferred by the others.



> be used. The
> only time someone should ever be doing a local build is if they are trapped on a desert island.
>
>

Whenever I go to a customer site, it is the same as being trapped on a desert island. I have no idea in advance about what kind of guest Internet access exists, if any, and I do not know whether my attempts to connect to my servers will be allowed by their proxies or firewalls.

Therefore, during such trips it is wiser to depend only on my fast Dell Precision laptop for program compilation.