Re: Minimal Boost.Jam

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-01-02 12:18:56

Alan Gutierrez wrote:

> Maybe not Boost.Build.v2, maybe Jam. Where is Perforce/Jam in
> all this? This strikes me as a Socratic question and this process
> of learning Boost.Build is already Socratic enough.
> 
> Are the orignal Jam or Performce/Jam involved in Boost.Build?

The original Jam is Perforce/Jam. Boost.Jam is basically an old version
of Perforce/Jam plus many extensions and improvements. Since then
Perfoce has made many other changes to its Jam and the codebases have
diverged.

> Aren't you advocating everyone to move toward Boost.Build v2?

Yes.

> More importantly, are there not two tools involved in Boost.Build:
> 
> 1) Boost.Jam
> 2) Boost.Build

Sort of. Boost.Jam is the executable and interpreted language
environment in which Boost.Build is constructed.

Your question is like asking whether there are two tools involved in
Docutils:

1) Docutils
2) Python

> Let me me rephrase my question.
> 
> I would like to create a minimal Boost.Jam file. One that
> generates no warnings.

DEPENDS all : Jamfile ;

will work.

> I want to understand the concept of a target in Boost.Jam.

Then read
http://www.boost.org/tools/build/jam_src/index.html#jam_fundamentals

> I understand the concept of a target, and I know how to
> specify one in make.
> 
> I'm asking a syntax question.

It's not exactly a syntax answer. There's no special syntax as in make
for introducing a dependency. It's done by calling a builtin rule.
That is to say that colons are just argument separators in Jam, nothing
more.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com