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Makefile
Raised as a usability problem by 9 people on Hacker News over 9 years (2018–2026), in 9 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Makefiles can't be linted or autoformatted, so errors are missedUnreviewed
20182026- Makefiles become unmanageable monstrosities as projects grow in configurations and dependencies2024-05-14
- Makefiles can't be linted or autoformatted, so errors are hard to catch2023-10-18
- Makefile syntax is hard to read and reason about2023-07-16
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 9 complaints
- Parallel build either runs single-threaded or overcommits CPU and freezes the machine2026-03-30
- Unlimited default parallel jobs exhaust RAM and swap, destabilizing the system2025-06-20
- Makefiles become unmanageable monstrosities as projects grow in configurations and dependencies2024-05-14
- Obscure syntax is hard to understand and remember, requiring constant googling2023-10-24
- Makefiles can't be linted or autoformatted, so errors are hard to catch2023-10-18
- Makefile syntax is hard to read and reason about2023-07-16
- Tab and space look identical but behave differently, so commands silently fail2022-12-07
- Hidden compiler options from make files make errors confusing to diagnose2020-04-12
- Tab characters being significant in the syntax is a wart that can trip people up2018-02-28