{"id":272,"date":"2021-09-30T15:39:21","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T14:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uptheretheylove.com\/blog\/?p=272"},"modified":"2021-09-30T15:39:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T14:39:21","slug":"reliable-builds-with-a-wobbly-tech-stack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uptheretheylove.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/30\/reliable-builds-with-a-wobbly-tech-stack\/","title":{"rendered":"Reliable builds with a wobbly tech stack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you’ve ever worked on a large software project, you know that keeping track of your tech stack can be a full-time job. Especially when your project uses multiple languages and frameworks, it can be a painful process to set up the environment correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, I will explain how I use Buildout<\/a>, an open-source automation tool written in Python, to create reliable builds for my game written in C++, JavaScript, and Python.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Buildout is great because you can put the steps to build your project directly into code. These steps are usually only written down in some internal wiki that has never been updated. Or worse, the information is passed by oral tradition, and the person who knows the exact steps to get the build running left the company three years ago…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as a solo game developer, I often simply forget <\/em>the exact steps needed to build my game. Recording them as a Buildout configuration is a huge relief when I come back to my project after not being able to work on it for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides talking about my quest for a stable build process, I also want to introduce uttl.buildout<\/a>, an open-source package for Buildout that will help you smooth out the build process for your own game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bootstrapping the process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I’m calling this an “early build” of my game because I don’t want you to criticize my graphics. I can do that perfectly well enough on my own.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first commit for Up There They Love<\/em> was on September 13th, 2017, and it contained a Visual Studio project, a Main.cpp<\/code>, and bootstrap.py<\/code>. All the bootstrap script did in that first version was to copy over some required Qt libraries to the build directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main goal for the script was to always get a working game by running python bootstrap.py<\/code> in a console window. I knew this could become very complicated over time, so I wanted to have it written down in code straight away. Over time, I expanded the script to find tools like Visual Studio and CMake, build dependencies automatically, and package the game for release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My tech stack is a combination of Qt, SDL, Chromium, custom JavaScript, Sass, Grunt, and Webpack. It’s quite difficult to keep track of these different technologies, I have to be mindful of switching between writing C++ and JavaScript, for example. I don’t want to then also waste my time trying to remember to copy certain files over if I want to actually run the build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Yes, I use both Webpack and Grunt. No, I don’t want to talk about it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s why it was so important to me to start with this bootstrap script: it helps to keep things running smoothly. When I make time to work on my game, I can run git pull && python bootstrap.py<\/code> to get in the right headspace straight away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If something isn’t working with the script, I fix it immediately. I don’t want to be in a situation where the script cannot reliably create a build. Because that effectively means I won’t remember how to build my game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after three years of intermittent development, this script had grown to around 2400 lines of Python. I still considered this to be a manageable size, but I was starting to experience some growing pains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I started to look for something better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking it down<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, my bootstrap script solves some very practical problems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n