Re: [gobo-eiffel-develop] geant file for libexml

[Andreas L. <no...@sb...>]

On Mon, 2001-10-22 at 00:36, Eric Bezault wrote:
> Andreas Leitner wrote:
> > 
> > Yes, but this design assumes we do not get another option. For
example
> > the xml examples can be compiled with or without expat. Other such
> > options will surely come with time. Now do I need for each option
touch
> > misc/eiffel.eant and add rules (which would clutter it up) that only
> > make sense for some projects.
> 
> No, don't add anything to misc/eiffel.eant, just add a new
> .eant file in misc (say misc/cc.eant) that inherits from
> misc/eiffel.eant and adds the various C compilation rules
> parameterized with geant's local variables (in the same way
> the 'compile_<compiler>' targets in misc/eiffel.eant are
> parameterized).


Sure, but let's stick with the xml example build.eant files. You can
compile the examples with or without the expat backend enabled. You can
decide this on a per example per compile basis. And take into account
that more such options are thinkable. For each new (boolean) option I
have to double the "compile_" tasks. This does not look attractive to
me.

So if we start with:

compile_ise
compile_se
compile_hact
compile_ve

then we want debug builds as well so we double:

compile_ise
compile_se
compile_hact
compile_ve
compile_ise_debug
compile_se_debug
compile_hact_debug
compile_ve_debug

then we want to compile with expat:

compile_ise
compile_se
compile_hact
compile_ve
compile_ise_debug
compile_se_debug
compile_hact_debug
compile_ve_debug
compile_ise_expat
compile_se_expat
compile_hact_expat
compile_ve_expat
compile_ise_debug_expat
compile_se_debug_expat
compile_hact_debug_expat
compile_ve_debug_expat

then we would like to link against the posix libraries:

compile_ise
compile_se
compile_hact
compile_ve
compile_ise_debug
compile_se_debug
compile_hact_debug
compile_ve_debug
compile_ise_expat
compile_se_expat
compile_hact_expat
compile_ve_expat
compile_ise_debug_expat
compile_se_debug_expat
compile_hact_debug_expat
compile_ve_debug_expat
compile_ise_posix
compile_se_posix
compile_hact_posix
compile_ve_posix
compile_ise_debug_posix
compile_se_debug_posix
compile_hact_debug_posix
compile_ve_debug_posix
compile_ise_expat_posix
compile_se_expat_posix
compile_hact_expat_posix
compile_ve_expat_posix
compile_ise_debug_expat_posix
compile_se_debug_expat_posix
compile_hact_debug_expat_posix
compile_ve_debug_expat_posix



Actually I think the autoconf/autobuild people have a better approach
here. They seperate the task of configuring and building a project into
two tasks. In the first task you call:
./configure --with-expat --debug --my-other-option
and then do a simple
make

We could do something similar: Have a configure.eant file that stores
configuration options. 


A configure.eant file (that would grows linearly only) could look like
this:
<configure>
        <var name="expat" value="true"/>
        <var name="debug" value="true"/>
        <var name="posix" value="true"/>
</configure>

This also much more reflects the usage. I do not switch from debug
builds to release builds on every compile. Rather I am doing some work
with debug options enabled, then reconfigure, and then I try some stuff
in release mode. Some goes for expat, etc.

Btw, I think the build options in GOBO will increase as we add
components that do not make sense / are not available on every setup. A
low-maintainace solution to add/remove options will help here.


geant would still work without a configure.eant file. It would just
assume the default values.

We could also add some tool that manipulates the configure.eant file
just like ./configure - if we don't want users to launch their editors.
Such a tool could even run in autodectect mode and for example set expat
only if it can find the library (similar to what ./configure does).


> > That was my first approach, meanwhile I put this clause out again,
> > because IMO it is a little ugly. So I added a remark to put a
symlink
> > from "studio" to "bench".
> 
> It's your point of view, but I find my solution less ugly,
> and no need to modify the ISE installation (remember that
> Gobo should ideally work out of the box).

Well, but you assume that all linux users have the latest beta. Earlier
versions do have the old path. Again a ./configure pendant could
autodetect such things.


Andreas