Automating the build process

Somehow, I still manage to be surprised when I discover that not everyone else has learnt how to ship software as well as we did at STNC and Microsoft WTGE.

This article on Gamasutra (registration required) promoting <a title=”Gamasutra - Features - “Automating the Build Process [12.08.00]” href=”http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20001208/irving_01.htm”>Automating the Build Process</a> is a prime example - “The final builds were of a higher quality than manually made builds.” Final builds!?!? Something you’re going to ship to a customer needs to be completely reproducible in case you have to fix any bugs in it, and producing it manually is just asking for trouble..

A good introduction to why you should automate the build, and some of the things you should include in the automated process.