adding and compiling new code

Hi all
I've just started writing code to PostgreSQL 7.4.2 and I wand to 
recompile the new source code that I  added in some .c files. I suspect 
that there  must be a quicker way to compile those files than executing 
the commands: ./configure, gmake, gmake install... . Could I use only 
some  Makefiles (the correspodent ones)  that  there are in each  
directory? If yes, how should I use them?
Thanks,
regards             Martha