But also it's never something I have to worry about. Pretty much every syntax-aware text editor knows how to handle Makefiles, and knows that recipe steps start with a tab (unless you change Make's default). So for me, that falls in the "ugly, but not really a usability issue" bucket. And Make's power/expressiveness is worth accepting a few "I'd have done it differently" syntax things.
lol that's fair enough. This is a tangent and unrelated to Make - but I also find myself in that situation pretty frequently, since I do a lot of embedded systems and some CI/CD work.
If you find yourself in that situation frequently, I'd recommend one of:
1. Use sshfs to mount your remote target locally on your dev machine, or:
2. Use vscode's remote-ssh mode (if the agent can run on your target).
Vscode's remote-ssh mode is really nice. It's good enough that it single-handedly made me switch from my previous editor, and I wish that I knew more tools like it.
But also it's never something I have to worry about. Pretty much every syntax-aware text editor knows how to handle Makefiles, and knows that recipe steps start with a tab (unless you change Make's default). So for me, that falls in the "ugly, but not really a usability issue" bucket. And Make's power/expressiveness is worth accepting a few "I'd have done it differently" syntax things.