Re: some more machine updates

[luka]

> Can you use an environment variable in a Makefile (i.e.
defining the
> octal include dir as $(OXBASE)/octal and the machines dir as
> $(OXBASE)/octalmachines?

sure. the current $(BASE) just needs to be renamed to $(OXBASE)
and its
initialization skipped. 

> Luka, by the way, I put up a screenshot with some web-graphics
concepts:
> http://dto.qwsi.net/oxconcepts.jpg
> Based on your suggestions (icons for each thing) I've done some
rough
> drafts and ideas. Let me know what you think.

great. i looked at it and like the direction... at first glance
the tetris logo was most
amusing, but the cubes are not bad either.... the only thing is -
i kinda hate white backgrounds :))))  

> Also, re: makefiles, I'm putting a section in the manual about
a
> standard way of distributing machines.. basically you have a
folder
> named after your machine, and that folder has 1. your sources
and 2. a
> make file whose default target should build the entire machine
and
> produce a binary *.so. Basically what everyone is already
doing, but in
> a consistent way (and with a single way to configure where the
> directories/includes are) so that the build script can just
update all
> the installed machines at once and not need per-machine
tweaking

yes, i'd like to have a Makefile in the root too which makes all
the subdirs and where
all initialization is done.  if anyone can contribute it, that
would be great, or else its
back to more RTFM for me... :) 

about make install - we also need a policy about where the
machines are installed. 
but for now i like the idea that octal just finds them in the
depths of the octalmachines folder.  

LF