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Comment by izacus | Hacker News Reader

Anectodally, but most of the breakage around Android build system I see online and with people I mentor is because they don't actually bother to read the first thing about how their build system works.

It's like people would use npm without ever reading how the package.json file is structured... and then complaining how everything is broken because their copy-pasted internet text broke the build.

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This is my experience also. People not fluent with Gradle or just don't want to invest the necessary time in learning how it works just cut and paste stuff into it and wonder why it doesn't work anymore.

Perhaps a build system shouldn't need people to invest so much time into learning it. There must be a better way than all those Gradle API's and all that Groovy syntax.

That's a nice sentiment, but you really can't be an engineer in any kind of software development without having an understanding how your software is put together. Especially if you want to do things like builds for different flavors, customize branding or do any kind of changes in the build process.

Some minimal standard of competence and knowledge is required for you to basically function.

I agree. I was talking about the needless complexity of Gradle and Groovy in handling a build, not the inherent complexity of a build itself. Builds can easily be described declaratively, as shown by Make and Ant, and this was a major step forward for the science of build descriptions. Gradle and Groovy, however, provide a procedural description of builds, with the apparent intention of generating technical debt in user IT land, and then selling them consultancy services and courses.

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