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Patch to allow GNU make-3.80 to use spaces in

greatwolf
2013-02-20
2013-06-06
  • greatwolf

    greatwolf - 2013-02-20

    Please consider applying this patch to mingw32-make.exe

    http://www.davehylands.com/Software/make

    This has been a source of annoyance for me when writing makefiles due to the tab vs space issue. I strongly prefer space over tabs for visual consistently. gnu make needs to be more accommodating on what leading whitespaces it should accept for a rule.

     
  • rubenvb

    rubenvb - 2013-02-20

    I don't really see how this would benefit most users. If you use a tool, isn't i logical that you are bound by certain rules, as in any programming language?

    In this case you are suggesting to change a POSIX standard, which to me, sounds kind of strange.

    If you don't like make, use something else, like CMake, or qmake, or heck, Visual Studio project files.

     
  • Jonathan Yong

    Jonathan Yong - 2013-02-20

    GNU Make uses TABs, changing that is out of the question since it breaks compatibility with upstream.
    I'm not sure what drove you to change it, but accepting your patch would be insane.

     
  • greatwolf

    greatwolf - 2013-02-20

    The main motivating reason for me is to remove a potential hidden catcha. It's not that I don't like using make, but it's the choice of mandating a tab character that just seems so arbitrary. From the SO question here it's clear I'm not the only one who feels this way if the upvote on the question is any indication.

    Does this change really have such an impact on compatibility? It's not like gnu make is being patch to only accept spaces instead of tabs - they're not mutually exclusive.

     
  • Jonathan Yong

    Jonathan Yong - 2013-02-20

    Talk to GNU make upstream developers, whatever you propose here is out of scope for mingw-w64 anyway.

     

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