Should there be a build step? about linux-dash HOT 4 CLOSED

It would also solve problems like #71 where users lack some required packages.
We could then just inform the user about the origin of the problem.

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@commonquail , thanks for the very well layed out case for a build step. Definitely worth discussing.

Here's my take: The whole point of a simple application like this should be to avoid any reason to have a build step. Though it has its merits, IMHO, a project like this loses a bit of its appeal when a build step is added (regardless of the value-add to work-involved ratio).

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perhaps we could add a debug script to the root directory that checks permissions, dependencies etc

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Here's my take: [...]

I agree with this. In general I think it would be best if we could avoid a situation where having a build step would be desirable. As long as the CSS and JS doesn't get too complex it isn't strictly necessary to minify the files, though any large files highly unlikely to change probably should be minified as a one-off.

I wrote this mostly to make sure the situation be considered so we didn't end up going down an unfortunate path early on. We can probably close the issue so it's left for posterity, and reopen it if it ever becomes relevant; I'll do so now.

Dependency management is tangentially related, but trickier because we can't easily interface with the system package manager in a portable way, and as long as we can get away with it we're maybe better off avoiding them in the first place (cURL can be avoided).

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