Re: Auxiliary makefile fragements

[Nicola Pero]

Hi David

thanks for your suggestions

>> So, I would suggest that we do not use auxiliary makefile fragments  
>> unless we're
>> forced to.  I mean, yes, Renaissance could install a makefile fragment  
>> that does
>> 
>> ADDITIONAL_NATIVE_LIBS += Renaissance
>> 
>> so you can include that makefile fragment instead of writing this line,
>> but I fail to see where the advantage is - compared to just writing that
>> line in your GNUmakefile. ;-)
>
> I think the advantage from a user perspective is that if you want to
> write a palette that builds on GDL2 palette and the EOModeller
> framework, it would be neat to simply:
>
> include $(GNUSTEP_MAKEFILES)/Auxiliary/gdl2.palette.make
> include $(GNUSTEP_MAKEFILES)/Auxiliary/gdl2.EOModeler.make
>
>instead of knowing that you need to add:
>
> ADDITIONAL_LIBRARY += -lGorm
> ADDITIONAL_NATIVE_LIBRARY += EOControl EOAccess EOInterface
> ADDITIONAL_NATIVE_LIBRARY += EOModeler GDL2Palette
>
> (But actually, you still may need to add/set PALETTE_LIBS so indeed you
> need to know more precisely what you need to link.)

Yes, I can see your point but personally I don't see that much difference ;-)

In the first example, you need to know that there is a gdl2.palette.make file
to include from that specific directory.

In the second example, you need to know that you need to add -lGorm
and GDL2Palette to a specific variable.

So I vote for removing the makefile fragments.

Good documentation with examples is probably the key thing to get people
to use our libraries and be able to link them! ;-)

It may be good to review the linking flags/variables, though, and I wouldn't
mind being able to do something like

$(GNUSTEP_MAKE_CHECK_REQUIRED_LIBRARY Renaissance)
$(GNUSTEP_MAKE_CHECK_REQUIRED_LIBRARY EOControl)

which would produce a clear user warning if these are not there.  (just an idea)

Thanks