What does "build against" mean?

Question

What does the phrase "build (some program) against (some library)" mean? I read this many times, but can't figure what does it mean. Thanks for help.

Brenan

You can read that as "build the program so that it will use/include this library" – Individualize

Was also confused about this. It's very strange vocabulary. i would've called it "build using" or "build with" – Toinette

Answer 1

While I'm not an expert in tracing the origin of this term, here are my thoughts:

Build Agains in Software development

In the context of programming, build against typically refers to the process of compiling or configuring a program using specific versions of libraries, frameworks, or APIs to ensure compatibility.

More logical terms

As JobHunter69 mentioned, terms like build using or build with certainly sound more intuitive and straightforward, The term build against, however, is widely used in the development community, particularly among those who frequently deal with multiple versions of libraries or APIs.

Influence of Software development Culture

Tracing the first use of the term "build against" in software development is quite challenging, as the specific origins of many such terms aren't well-documented. The choice of phrasing could be influenced by various factors in the software development culture, including historical usage patterns and the semantics adopted by different programming communities. Sometimes, these terms become conventional within certain contexts, even if they might seem a bit odd when considered from a general language perspective. As programming languages and developer tools evolve, so too do the terms and jargon used by developers, but they don't always shift towards more intuitive language.

Doublestop

Answer 2

I will address this issue in terms of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) since it is the easiest and most widely use these days.

So if I am writing a program that creates and add some text in a txt file, I have different existing libraries to use.

These libraries enable me to utilise predefined functions which feed on my own information, to serve the purpose of the program I am building.

A Java example: java.io.File and java.nio.file.Files. The usage can depend sometimes on slight usage differences or simply preference.

Alexandretta