Add a MakeFile

[Chopper1337]

This pull request...

• Fixes a bug
• Introduces a new feature
• Improves an existing feature
• Boosts code quality or performance

Description

Add a Makefile for building,testing or cleaning.

Purpose

Allows developers to simply run make build or make test to build or test the application. Also allows for make clean to clean the ./target directory.

Relevant Issue(s)

N/A

[jagrosh]

I have nothing against makefiles (I use them extensively in other non-java projects) but it would be helpful to have more feedback on why adding this would be useful to this project specifically.

• The command to build (without testing) is slightly shorter (make build vs mvn install -DskipTests), but the command to test is slightly longer (make test vs mvn test). Generally I'd expect someone who is building locally to be doing so in order to test that their changes work, and mvn install is shorter than make build && make test.
• This would make it marginally easier for people who are unfamiliar with maven (and who are familiar with make) to understand the build process, but it doesn't change the requirement to have maven installed, maven isn't very complicated, and the entire project and its ci settings are built around maven
• This would require future contributors to learn makefiles if they ever wanted to make changes to the build process, as they'd have to edit the maven files as well as the makefile (I've worked with projects that have had multiple parallel methods for building, and from my experience it leads to inconsistency).
• This project in general doesn't need encouragement to build from source, as:
  • Someone that is working a pull request undoubtedly is using an IDE that supports java, and I'm fairly certain all popular java IDEs support maven
  • Someone looking for a build to run should use the existing releases, as master is not guaranteed to work, and it's more difficult to debug builds from unknown sources.

I'm open to discussion about the merits of adding this, if you or anyone else would like to weigh in.

[Chopper1337]

My thinking was mostly this: If build instruction aren't going to be provided, it's a good enough way to indicate how to build it.

Personally, I had forgotten how to build Java applications and had added this such that I wouldn't need to remember how to :-)

If not a Makefile, maybe a small section on building and testing could be added to README.md instead?

[jagrosh]

maybe a small section on building and testing could be added to README.md instead?

I'd rather do this than add a Makefile, although I'm still hesitant to encourage people to build the project themselves, as someone who is capable of making a pull request should already be able to open and build this project in their IDE (without any additional changes/instructions; most Java IDEs support maven), and I don't want to nor have the time to help people who run into issues trying to build it on their own.