DontBelieveMe / nx-build

A Javascript based project file generator

nx-build - A Javascript based project file generator

(Because you know JavaScript gets everywhere else these days)

Setup

• If you are going to contribute to the project fork it from GitHub and clone your fork
• Otherwise run git clone https://github.com/DontBelieveMe/nx-build.git
• Navigate into that root directory
• Run npm install to install all all npm dependencies
• Now we can run the code by executing 'node index.js
• For example to generate project files in the examples/ex folder run node ../../index.js from that directory.
• This is generate project files in a build subdirectory. (This subfolder name is hardcoded for now).

Usage

nx-build scripts are written in plain Javascript and have full access to the node ecosystem

• Mostly - you can require all default node modules and any modules exposed by nx-build
• At the moment you cannot install any external packages via npm or any other package manager.

In order to use nx-build create a nx.build.js file in the root of your project.
A simple nx.build.js file may look like this

var nx = require('nx');

var target = nx.createTarget();

target.setName('helloWorld');
target.setType('executable');

target.addSrcFile('src/main.c');

nx.addTarget(target);

• var nx = require('nx'); -> This will include the nx generator system API for you to use.
• var target = nx.createTarget() -> This creates a new target. A target is a binary file that is either an executable, a static library or a shared library.
• target.setName('helloWorld'); -> Sets the name of the target, In this case the executable will be called helloWorld
• target.setType('executable'); -> Sets the type of the target, e.g executable, shared/static library. In this case it the source files are going to compile into a executable.
• target.addSrcFile('src/main.c'); -> Adds a source file to be compiled into the target. File paths such as these are all relative to the directory of the nx.build.js.
• nx.addTarget(target) -> This finally will include target as part of that module. This will eventually allow for having multiple targets in one project.

That is the anatomy of a simple nx.build.js file. Of course, because they are scripted in JS, anything you can do in JS you can do in these scripts, for example conditionally add source files depending on the OS (exposed through Nodes os module), modify the filesystem (Nodes fs module), or even use the node HTTP/HTTPS API to download or upload files!

Roadmap

• Currently the project is going through a 'bit' (read a lot) of a restructure and converting to typescript whilst i'm at it. So yeah, that.
• Visual Studio project generation
• Allowing a structure that supports 'subprojects' or adding external nx-build projects.
  • Like CMakes add_directory function
  • It would be really cool to be able to integrate this functionality with git submodules (e.g similar to Vim & Vundle) - Specify a GitHub address (name/project) and nx-build should clone that and integrate it.
• All Issues