Re: C++ Modules

[Paul Smith]

On Fri, 2023-06-09 at 17:12 +0000, Kenton Wilson wrote:
> I came across a paper by Nathan Sidwell entitled, 'Make Me a Module':
> 
>  https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2019/p1602r0.pdf
> 
> I was wondering if there are plans to add support for C++ modules to
> gnu make. If so, has there been any estimates on beta availability?
> Is this being blocked due to some modules functionality not yet
> implemented in gcc

I did get a copy of that paper when Nathan published it.  I thought it
was very interesting but, while I code C++ all day for my $(dayjob) I
haven't used modules at all so I can't speak to how they should be used
or how they should be integrated with GNU Make, from personal
experience.

I have no idea if the approach Nathan outlines is the best one, and no
one has made any effort to integrate that into GNU Make proper.  I'm
not sure what the status is of the GCC enhancements that were proposed,
to allow integration with build tools.

I know that CMake is working on enabling some sort of module support,
it might be interesting to take a look at that as well (just to
understand the issues they ran into and how they decided to manage
them).

All that said I would definitely like to provide great support for C++
modules in GNU Make, in whatever form that takes.  I just don't have
the background, at this time, to propose solutions.