Re: [boost] Announcement: Faber, a new build system based on bjam

Subject: Re: [boost] Announcement: Faber, a new build system based on bjam
From: Hans Dembinski (hans.dembinski_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-12-01 19:21:56

> On 1. Dec 2017, at 07:11, Gavin Lambert via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 
> On 30/11/2017 01:59, Hans Dembinski wrote:
>> from faber.artefacts...: artefacts? The term "artefact" is very
>> general and non-descriptive. The first definition provided by Google
>> is essentially "human-made thing".
> A little more context gives it meaning (though with the US spelling):
> 
>  https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=build+artifact
> 
> It's a reasonably well-known phrase, I thought.

The first link in this Google search is (at least in my search bubble)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artifact_(software_development)

"An artifact occasionally may be used to refer to the released code (in the case of a code library <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_(computing)>) or released executable (in the case of a program) produced but the more common usage is in referring to the byproducts of software development rather than the product itself."

The quote says it. In addition, the article lists so many other meanings of "artifact". And then the word itself has many other meanings in other contexts, like in compression or archeology. It is not a well-defined term. A word that has so many meanings means nothing in the end. I believe CMake calls "targets" what Faber calls "artefacts". The meaning of "targets" is pretty clear to me in the context of a build system. I think I will stop here...