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For some reason I never run make from inside vim. However, I have written a short script that executes make and calls vim if there was an error. If you are interested you can download it here. A sample session:

% make javac Article.java Article.java:8: Class bolean not found in type declaration. bolean changed=false; ^ Article.java:8: Incompatible type for boolean. Can't convert boolean to bolean. bolean changed=false; ^ Article.java:32: Incompatible type for if. Can't convert bolean to boolean. if(changed) { ^ Article.java:38: Incompatible type for =. Can't convert boolean to bolean. changed=false; ^ Article.java:76: Incompatible type for =. Can't convert boolean to bolean. changed=true; ^ 5 errors gmake: *** [Article.class] Error 1 start editing ?

By answering with 'y' vim is started, opens the correct file and positions the cursor at the correct line. As many error messages are longer than one line I use a special startup file which reserves 5 lines for the error messages and redefines 4 keys for easier navigation, namely:

CTRL-N: Jump to the next error
CTRL-P: Jump to the previous error
CTRL-V: Redisplay the current error message
CTRL-L: Display all error messages

This script is able to cope with nested makefiles, as long as makefiles in subdirectories are called via make -C subdirectory (like for example in the linux kernel).