Archive for the ‘my values’ Category
categorical build systems
At my workplace we have several issues around a build systems for a given project. Everybody just checks out the source and work on it. It compiles, so everything’s fine. There’s no proper clean target/rule. It happens every once in a while that you just make a clean check out and things just stop to work. Hence this post about my effort to formalize expectations.
Let’s put it into category theory. So the category of proper build systems has two objects and several arrows. Some of the arrows are like this:
source control and filesystem - build and clean
There are also arrows representing changes in the source.
Different properties of categories can be explained by saying that a given diagram commutes. These are called commutative diagrams. The meaning is that the taken effect (represented by paths in the graph) depends only on the nodes the path runs between.
So in a category of proper build systems the following diagrams commute:
twice a clean is like one
twice a build is like one
even if I build before I clean should be a single clean
a rebuild should be the same as a clean & build
a clean should leave a clean check out as it is
Also, it follows that
a clean gives me back my clean check out
These rules are too strict but compelling. For me it’s enough if the following commutes:
I can work without cleaning all the time
being an employee
Being an employee is kinda easygoing. You don’t have to care about the thins to do for your money. Your company takes this adventure. The only thing you have to do is to do what’s told and cry for more money. You don’t have to take the risk of market/financial decisions. Managing this peril is the 1st step to get out from the rat race as Kiyosaki sais in his book. I agree with the Criticism section of the page though. I think one has to learn to filter out useful thoughts from a given lecture anyway.
