DevOps Is Software Engineering for Your Builds
C++ developers often approach DevOps with a reasonable degree of skepticism, and it's not without reason. Their top five challenges revolve around build scripts, dependency management, and setting up CI pipelines—areas traditionally associated with DevOps responsibilities. Michael Xymitoulias articulated this sentiment well in a recent LinkedIn post writing:
Right now, it feels that C++ developers have to deal with way more than just writing business logic code. [...] Allowing devs to focus more on coding rather than trying to solve problems of the ecosystem would probably be liberating
Xymitoulias suggestion that allowing developers to focus more on coding, rather than grappling with ecosystem problems, would be liberating. He's not alone, Bill Hoffman, CTO behind CMake supports this ideal of simplifying the developer workflows, something we've seen put in place with recent improvements to the popular build system.
While building in C++ certainly comes with its challenges, streamlining this process is our collective goal. So, let's delve into the core focus as it relates to C++ and dispel some common misconceptions.