Using Makefiles in Python projects

[Rhodri James]

On 09/11/2019 23:50, Thomas Jollans wrote:
> On 09/11/2019 21:30, Chris Angelico wrote:
>> On Sun, Nov 10, 2019 at 2:10 AM Thomas Jollans <tjol at tjol.eu> wrote:
>>> On 07/11/2019 20:20, Vitaly Potyarkin wrote:
>>>> What do you think of using Makefiles for automating common chores in
>>>> Python projects? Like linting, type checking and testing?
>>>>
>>>> I've come up with a reusable Makefile for automating virtual 
>>>> environment
>>>> management in Python projects. I think it can be useful for simplifying
>>>> the onboarding of new developers (both new to project and new to 
>>>> Python)
>>>> and for documenting project's development practices.
>>>>
>>>> Here it is:
>>>> - Repo: https://github.com/sio/Makefile.venv
>>>> - Demo screencast: https://asciinema.org/a/279646
>>>>
>>>> What do you think? Is this useful or I'm just unaware of some tool that
>>>> abstracts venv chores away better?
>>>>
>>> As others have said, make is a useful tool and many people use it for
>>> different purposes in their Python projects. Nothing wrong with that.
>>>
>>> HOWEVER, at risk of stating the obvious, using Makefiles written for/on
>>> *nix systems on Windows is a bit of a hassle. If, for some reason, your
>>> software is *nix-only anyway, that's fine. If not, using make means
>>> sacrificing some portability.
>>>
>>> If your software runs on Windows, of you think it might run on Windows
>>> in the future, maybe consider writing simple Python scripts for
>>> platform-independent tasks rather than makefiles and shell scripts.
>>>
>> Are you assuming that every Windows system has Python, but that you
>> can't get make or bash? Because neither half of that is true. I've
>> happily used makefiles on Windows, and these days, bash is as easy to
>> get hold of as Python is.
>>
>> ChrisA
> 
> That's why I say "a bit of a hassle". You can get a MSYS set up (whether 
> from Git for Windows or otherwise). You can get it to play nice with the 
> right Python installation and the Python scripts you presumably want to 
> call from the Makefile. But all of that is a bit of a hassle.

If you've got almost any development environment for Windows, you've got 
a version of make.  I quite like the NMake that comes with Visual 
Studio, for example, and use it in preference to the IDE when I can. 
Yes, it's a hassle, but it's a hassle you're going to go through anyway.

-- 
Rhodri James *-* Kynesim Ltd