> The 'standard' engineer configuration is a linux or mac workstation, a linux or mac laptop
Are there any restrictions on how much these devices can cost, or what models/brands are permitted?
> Chrome engineers have a more extravagant setup by default due to the cross-platform nature of our work and the redonkulous size of the Chrome debug binary.
I used to compile my own Chromium binaries when I was running Gentoo, though now I just use chromium-browser-bin from the AUR. When I did compile them, it took ~45 minutes each time - how long does it take on your workstation? I'm guessing it's at least 10 minutes - if so, how does that affect your workflow?
Engineers don't typically design and configure their own systems. There's a hardware group that does that, and engineers are just presented with a menu of choices.
Off the top of my head, I'd say that clean Chromium builds take my linux machine about 10 minutes. Null builds take a bit less than 1, and typical builds with a few files changed take between 1 and 2.
Most of the time is split between make stat'ing bazillions of files before the "build" even starts, and the linker thinking very hard right before it is done.
A coworker is working on a replacement for make that can somehow get away with touching far fewer files by caching dependency information. That should halve the time for typical builds I suspect.
As for my workflow, I don't find iteration time to be a limiting factor on my productivity. Iterations aren't as fast as something like ruby or python, but on the other hand, the compiler gives you a lot more information before you even run the code. So by the time the compiler's happy, you're a lot closer to something that works correctly.
> Off the top of my head, I'd say that clean Chromium builds take my linux machine about 10 minutes. Null builds take a bit less than 1, and typical builds with a few files changed take between 1 and 2.
Huh, I'm not familiar with this terminology (being an Autotools user), but it appears to be specific to SCons, a build system used by Chrome. I'll definitely have to take a look at it, as Autotools is an absolute nightmare, even once you understand how to use it.
Are there any restrictions on how much these devices can cost, or what models/brands are permitted?
> Chrome engineers have a more extravagant setup by default due to the cross-platform nature of our work and the redonkulous size of the Chrome debug binary.
I used to compile my own Chromium binaries when I was running Gentoo, though now I just use chromium-browser-bin from the AUR. When I did compile them, it took ~45 minutes each time - how long does it take on your workstation? I'm guessing it's at least 10 minutes - if so, how does that affect your workflow?