Back in the 90’s, I did not hold in high regard the Make command with its cryptic syntax, insistence on making a tab space semantically significant, and platform/vendor-specific idiosyncrasies. Surely, I thought then, Make will get replaced by a better tool any day now.

Today it is March 13, 2025. Make is still here and isn't going anywhere. With every fiber of my being I know that Make will outlive all of us. It is now too deeply rooted in our computing infrastructure to go away.

Somewhere in the 2010’s I accepted the above observation and to paraphrase Kubrick, just stopped worrying and learned to love Make.

That said, for all of Make’s ubiquity, there aren't that many tools around to help you edit makefiles.

Emacs supports makefile editing with make-mode which has a mix of useful and half-baked (though thankfully obsoleted in 30.1) commands. It is from this substrate that I'm happy to announce the next Casual user interface: Casual Make.

Of particular note to Casual Make is its attention to authoring and identifying automatic variables whose arcane syntax is un-memorizable. Want to know what $< means? Just select it in the makefile and use the . binding in the Casual Make menu to identify what it does in the mini-buffer.

Casual Make is now available with the latest update of Casual v2.4.0 on MELPA. This is a big update that also includes Info documentation for Casual for the first time.

Closing Thoughts

If your vocation involves programming computers, learn Make. The rewards will pay off handsomely as you will find utility in using Make for tasks both big and small. This is especially so for Emacs users who can take advantage of the compile command which by default invokes Make. The combination of Emacs compilation mode, make mode, command completion & history makes for a compelling IDE for task running.

If you appreciate the Casual project, please support its development and maintenance by buying me a coffee.

References

• Make (software) - Wikipedia
• GNU Make Manual

emacs