2024-10-25 –, Arena
nix-make[1] is a C and C++ build system supporting incremental compilation. It
implements a thin layer of dependency graph construction in nixlang and lets
Nix do the heavy lifting.
This talk starts with an explanation of the user interface and a demo. I will
show what benefits a Nix-native build system brings compared to traditional
alternatives. I'll then touch on some of the convenience tooling that helps
with integrating misbehaved dependencies. Lastly, I'll explain how it is
implemented and list some of the problems that are yet to be overcome.
The difficulty level of the talk gradually increases. The first part is targeted at C and C++ programmers with at least some Nix knowledge, it will be hard following the code examples for people that are completely new to the Nix language.
The explanation of how the tool works requires an intermediate understanding of Nix and towards the end I might go into dynamic derivations, which is currently a rather advanced topic.
Overall I would label it as "intermediate".
Do you allow your talk to be recorded?: yes
Graduated with a "Diplom" in CS from the FAU Erlangen in Germany. Worked in video coding research at an institute that should not be named for a few years before going into the industry.
Discovered Nix while exploring Haskell at that time and immediately fell in love. Opened my first PRs to nixpkgs in 2018 and became a regular but low-frequency contributor.
Currently working as a Programmer/Architect at a data-focussed Cybersecurity startup in Hamburg, where I introduced Nix to manage development environments and as a tool to build static binaries for distribution.