Portable mail archives?

[Tim Writer]

Simon <simon80-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> writes:

> Talk about a bad build system - if the build system's method is worse,
> it should just use a symlink tree!

Of course, unless it has to work on that crappy O/S that doesn't have
symlinks. And some developers just like to reinvent the wheel, esp. if they
don't know wheels exist and even if their wheel is more rectangular than
round. Just because there are decent, free tools available, doesn't mean
people will use them. Existence proof: Linux and Windows.

> Anyway, the only build system I
> know, really, is autotools, which is definitely able to do
> multiplatform builds in separate directories, as long as the
> maintainer knows how to configure them properly.  make distcheck is
> your friend, and so is ccache..

autotools are like C++ templates. When they work, they're kind of cool,
esp. when someone else has done the initial heavy lifting. When they don't
work (which is surprisingly often), they're an absolute pain to debug.

> I would say that symlink trees wouldn't be easier than the way that
> configure does it (you run the configure script from an arbitrary
> directory, and then it doesn't pollute the source tree).

A symlink tree doesn't pollute the source tree and works every time, even
when configure is broken.

-- 
tim writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>                                  starnix inc.
647.722.5301                                      toronto, ontario, canada
http://www.starnix.com              professional linux services & products
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