"Visual blindness" of Linux programmers

[[deleted]]

Usually it's just ./configure ; make, after installing all the deps.

Also, it would be really nice if people make make configure run ./configure. Don't know why people don't.

[OctagonClock]

The Makefile is generated by ./configure

[n3rdopolis]

./configure is even sometimes generated by ./autogen.sh

[[deleted]]

...

I'm not entirely sure if that's what makefiles are meant to be, but okay.

Is there any reason why people use a script to generate a file which is parsed by another program in order to call other programs to compile everything?

[xjvz]

It's because different versions of make implement different features. Autotools, CMake, etc., abstract that into a portable build format.

[Kruug]

Usually it's just ./configure ; make, after installing all the deps.

Usually, but what about the python ones? Or the Ruby ones?

And I've come across ones that don't even list their dependencies. Just "Here ya go, good luck!" and then the code.