Re: [Hamlib-developer] Ruby/Java Bindings

[Nate B. <n0...@n0...>]

* On 2012 26 Jun 03:16 -0500, Ricky Elrod wrote:
> Hi there - I'm thinking it should be relatively easy to add Ruby
> bindings (and perhaps Java bindings which will give all JVM langs (Java,
> Scala, Groovy, Jython, JRuby, etc.) a hamlib interface) due to the use
> of swig.
> 
> I've never used swig personally for a project, otherwise I would
> volunteer to take this on myself. Is there any chance of getting those
> in the next release? I'm happy to beta test them out.

Ricky, nothing personal in what follows, I'm just venting to the world!

I spent a few hours last night and this morning trying to hack support
for generating the Ruby bindings into the GNU Autotools build system.  I
quit when I was literally in a screaming fit with Autotools.  I was
ready to gouge my eyes out.

<RANT>

GNU Autotools is unfit for any sort of sane package maintenance!  It is
blindly opaque, horribly fragile, insanely pedantic, generates error
messages more useless than those of ed(1), and requires a level of time
and knowledge commitment to use it that goes beyond understanding the
entire codebase of Hamlib!

There must be something better.

A build system should allow the maintainer to add needed modules and
features without the need to consult cryptic manuals that may or may not
match the version of the installed tool.  I dare anyone to tell me that
some version of a GNU Autotools manual found matches the actual version
of the tool.  At least most sane manual authors will note which version
of the tool the manual is written for, but Autotools?  Not a chance!

Then there is the need to do everything in some combination of
"portable" shell script and m4, a combination devised by the legions of
BOFH, if you ask me.  There must be *something* out there that lets us
build on various platforms without resorting to this black magic.

Anyone?  Bueller?


Crickets....

</RANT>

There, I feel better.

Suffice it to say that I will be leaving the addition of more Swig
generated bindings to someone else.  As always, patches are welcome.
;-)

73, de Nate >>

-- 

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

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