Re: How to simplify this makefile?

[Karl Berry]

    obviously didn't grasp all of the details.

Perfectly understandable :).

    should recursively invoke make with my output directory (Materials) as
    the current directory, rather than using source as the current

I'm not sure you need to do this.

    so 00cover.ppt -> 00cover.pdf, 01overview.ppt -> 01overview.pdf, and

So where does the PT3443Color.pdf come in?  That's why you said that the
simple pattern rule I sent doesn't work.

Looking at your original message, how about making a rule:
..\Materials\PT%.pdf: <something>

I'm not sure what the <something> is because I can't tell how you
intended to build the PT's.  But at least that will allow you to handle
them differently than the 00*.ppt -> 00*.pdf case.

Also, I noticed:

CHAPTERSCOLOR=..\Materials\${CHAPTER00}         \
              ..\Materials\${CHAPTER01}         \
              ..\Materials\${CHAPTER02}         \

You could avoid the repeating the ..\Materials\ (if this matters) with
the $(addprefix) function.


Anyway, happy making :).

k