[username223]

This. When step one is "install our weird build system," I'll immediately look for something else that meets my needs. All build systems suck, so everyone thinks they can write a better one, and too many people try. Pretty soon you end up having to learn a majority of this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_build_automation_softw...) to get your code to compile.

[einpoklum]

If TCMalloc uses bazel, then you build it with Bazel. It just needs to install itself where you tell it to, and then either it has given you a pkg-config file, or otherwise, your own build system needs some library-finding logic for it ("find module" in CMake terms). Or - are you saying the problem is that you need to install Bazel?

[JadedBlueEyes]

Building complete, optimised binaries can be much more complicated than just linking in a SO/A file. Things like cross-language LTO and PGO can be massive for performance and require integration throughout the build system.

[username223]

> Or - are you saying the problem is that you need to install Bazel?

That. Then there's Facebook's build system, a few Python and JavaScript build systems, and pretty soon I have installed and have to deal with a half-dozen things that slightly improve upon Make. It's a maintenance burden if I ever have to touch any of these build systems.