I am re-learning C and C++ after so many years of coding in Python. To learn some concepts, I found myself often write a single-source file then compile it. For example, if I write a hello.cpp source, compiling it will involve something like this:

g++ -o hello hello.cpp

That is a lot to type (at least to me). I know about make and how to write a Makefile, so I often write one to ease my typing:

# Makefile
hello: hello.cpp

Then to compile, I can issue one of these commands:

make
make hello

All is good at this point. However, after a while, even writing a simple Makefile gets tedious. It turns out that make knows how to compile a C or C++ source, even without the help of a Makefile. That simplifies my workflow quite a bit, which is now involves:

  1. Write the source, say hello.cpp

  2. Compile and run:

     make hello && ./hello
  3. Go back to step 1 to fix or improve the code and repeat

For those times that I need a little more than just write the program and run, I will turn back to the trusty Makefile, but for most of my learning scenarios, the above workflow works well for me.