Build system
A build system is software that automates transforming source code and project inputs into artifacts through tasks such as compiling, testing, and packaging.
Building User-Friendly DSLs
Software that automates the generation and construction of executable artifacts from source specifications or code.
- How it is used
- Turns domain experts’ DSL specifications into runnable or deployable Runtime software.
- How deep it goes
- Explains inputs, generated and handwritten outputs, triggers, reference implementations, and template construction, without detailing a complete generator.
- Examples
- Uses a rental-price web application, a serialized AST repository, template functions, and CLI-triggered builds as concrete examples.
- What you can do after
- Builds a Runtime by combining AST-generated code with handwritten code and configuration through an automated build trigger.
Read how Building User-Friendly DSLs explains build system →
Web Components in Action
- How it is used
- Automates frontend tasks such as bundling code for production or transpiling newer JavaScript for older browsers.
- How deep it goes
- Introduces build-step motivations and npm scripts, while contrasting them with more complex systems.
- Examples
- Uses npm installation commands and a package.json test script to illustrate project setup and task running.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via npm scripts to run project tasks without setting up a more complex build system.
Related concepts
- Gradleincludes · Gradle is an open-source build automation system for defining and executing software build tasks, managing dependencies, and configuring project builds.
- abstract syntax treeuses · An abstract syntax tree is a hierarchical tree representation of the syntactic structure of parsed source code or other language input, typically omitting superficial formatting details.
- code generationhas part · Code generation is the production of program code by transforming inputs such as specifications, models, templates, or existing representations.
- CSS Modulesuses · CSS Modules is a build-time CSS scoping technique that transforms class names into locally unique names to prevent naming collisions.
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