[PATCH] D56419: [gn build] Move .gn file to the root of the monorepo

Mon Jan 7 17:38:25 PST 2019

brzycki added a comment.

> Sorry, I don't see how a hidden file that says "this is unsupported" has much promotional value.

Placing .gn at the top-level with a comment that it's unsupported contradicts users expectations. To the casual user outside the day-to-day of llvm-dev they have no idea if they should or should not use .gn. It's confusing at best: is the .gn file location stale or the comment stale or is something else going on? I've worked in this industry long enough to see too many unsupported tools quickly become the cornerstone of key infrastructure.

I genuinely don't understand why making a single symlink satisfies all potential use cases for the intrepid users who decide to build a compiler with an unsupported build system.

> Now that it's there I'm trying to make it as easy to use as possible, in the hope that that entices more people giving it a try, hence this change.

One symlink step in the readme, or two parameters to gn isn't easy enough? I'm sure those that are curious to try it won't be discouraged by such small steps. Why entice users to try an unsupoorted build system? Keeping everything under utils/ sends a strong message to everyone: use this at your own risk.

This statement:

> And why do I bother with that? So that more people hopefully see how needlessly slow the CMake build is, so that folks trying to make the CMake build get less pushback.

And this one:

> GN is 100% unsupported (as I've added as a comment to the file as I moved it over). I do not intend to push for changing this.

seem like contradictions to me. Why bother challenging the existing CMake build system as "needlessly slow" if you don't intend to push for changing the build system?

This isn't just about gn: if this was a commit to put a scons file at the top level I'd be pushing back just as hard.

I've said my peace and I'll let other developers weigh in on this. I am still -1 on this commit.

CHANGES SINCE LAST ACTION
  https://reviews.llvm.org/D56419/new/

https://reviews.llvm.org/D56419