I don’t think build time from `clean` is the right metric. A developer is usually using incremental compilation, so that’s where I want the whatever speed I can get.
Nobody likes a 5m build time, but that’s a very old slow chip!
"Incremental compilation is fast", is something people only talk about when normal compilation speeds are abysmal. Sadly, C++ set the expectations here, which made both Rust and Swift think that compilation times in the minutes is fine.
If your code compiles in 1 second from scratch then what do you need incremental compilation for?
> If your code compiles in 1 second from scratch then what do you need incremental compilation for?
That's entirely fair. But, when I watch somebody like Jon Blow, with his 1 second from scratch compilation the result seems to be that he just iterates a lot more without being significantly more productive than I am. I can imagine for some parts of video game design fast iteration might be crucial, yet I struggle to imagine that compilation speed is what matters there. Systems design, art direction, plotting, these don't seem like factors where you need those one second compile times.
Nobody likes a 5m build time, but that’s a very old slow chip!