Compile Times

I'm writing this post while waiting on a release build to compile. I'm using incredibuild and it looks like there are about 10 machines helping at any given point. All that compute power and still I'm only half done at the 12 minute mark.

I once worked on the IronMan game and it had compile times under 1 minute on POS machine. The difference was the size of the code base and the strict enforcement of compile times as the ultimate virtue in code.

At the time I thought it was the dumbest policy imaginable. Why use a typed language if your going to throw out type safety? Why hand code different variations when a template can handle the job?

Now as I sit here and watch blue bars change green past the 20 minute mark, I can't help but think the Secret Level guys had a point. Well the game sucked and they are out of business but man those compile times were amazing.