Re: [Chicken-hackers] Re: separate build directory support for Chicken

[felix winkelmann]

On Jan 13, 2008 5:52 AM, Ivan Shmakov <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>         I have invested a lot of time into learning both Make and
>         Autotools, and have autoconfiscated quite a few packages duiring
>         the last three years.  Most of the time, Autotools allows one to
>         reduce some horrid 1000 lines Makefile into a neat Makefile.am,
>         with just two variables (foo_SOURCES and bin_PROGRAMS) or so.
>         It's a sure way to make the build system more manageable /for
>         me/.

The 1000 lines Makefile is still there, it's only hidden inside m4 macro
packages and obscure shell scripts nobody understands.

Additionally, every build-system I've seen so far horribly breaks down if
you start doing special things, like bootstrapping or cross-compiling, or
just doing tiny little things slightly differently. Once you try to work around
the limitation of the build system, it's already too late: the system is not
appropriate anymore.

GNU make is the least common denominator, that's why we us it, and there
is no alternative, yet.


cheers,
felix