Maybe it’s bazelTrauma:tm: … but pants feels too e...
# generalp
purple-plastic-57801
03/14/2023, 12:38 AMMaybe it’s bazelTrauma™️ … but pants feels too easy. What are some gotchas? Foot guns? Etc?
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wide-midnight-78598
03/14/2023, 12:41 AMToo much free time.
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bitter-ability-32190
03/14/2023, 12:42 AMHaha good question.
Most of us are honest/objective about this, I think.
My answers would be:
• Less support for compiley stuff like C++ and Rust
• Plugin support is great, but the bar is kinda high. Maybe not any higher than Bazel, but still...
• Speed could be improved, but we're improving it
• Bazel is BIG and its GOOGLE so it has a lot of support and tooling. Pants doesn't get that much love aside from the wonderful Toolchain
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wide-midnight-78598
03/14/2023, 12:44 AMEchoing Josh's answers, for some people, it can be that the API is subject to change more than they might expect. There are a lot of "experimental" plugins (where experimental usually means API isn't stable, but functionality is great).
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bitter-ability-32190
03/14/2023, 12:45 AMOh and honestly it ventures on "bain" as much as "boon". Sometimes I think Pants does so much people expect it to do everything. 🤷♂️
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purple-plastic-57801
03/14/2023, 12:45 AMAll wonderful points. Has anyone considered a “what pants isn’t” documentation page or blog post?
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broad-processor-92400
03/14/2023, 1:45 AMMajor gotcha: it's hard to talk about "pants" with a straight face 😅
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busy-vase-39202
03/14/2023, 11:46 AMhttps://pantsbuild.slack.com/archives/C046T6T9U/p1678754544058919?thread_ts=1678754317.038639&cid=C046T6T9U While true, a nice thing is that virtually all of these can be eliminated by more people getting involved in contributing. So if you're enjoying Pants overall and want the few catches to be smaller, becoming a contributor is a great way to benefit everyone.
busy-vase-39202
03/14/2023, 11:52 AMAlso, while Toolchain has by far the most employees who are paid to work full-time on Pants, the project is also very indebted to firms such as Vicara, IBM, iManage, and Aiven which have each contributed substantial amounts of staff time long-term to the project as well. Any company that empowers its staff to dedicate time to Pants is making exciting new features possible.
busy-vase-39202
03/14/2023, 11:55 AMhttps://pantsbuild.slack.com/archives/C046T6T9U/p1678754749256909?thread_ts=1678754317.038639&cid=C046T6T9U We haven't discussed it, but could you suggest what things people might be expecting from Pants that would need that kind of clarification? Maintainers are not necessarily able to have that perspective on what preconceptions/expectations newcomers might be applying to Pants.
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bitter-ability-32190
03/14/2023, 12:52 PMFor the record, my praise of Toolchain was more about SaaS offerings that help boost an organization's use of tool. Bazel has EngFlow and ... the other names are eluding me, but there's a handful.
That being said I welcome competition in the marketplace 😈
❤️ 1
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busy-vase-39202
03/14/2023, 1:02 PMWe're always happy to accept praise for the SaaS offerings!