Re: [Boost-build] Status of b2 and all the python tools in the build directory?

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] Status of b2 and all the python tools in the build directory?
From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-12-20 01:37:01

On 19.12.2013 22:14, Jess wrote:
>>> So my question is, what are all the python scripts that have been
>>> paralleling the jam files for a few years?  Is this some sort of effort to
>>> make rules and modifications easier to make?
>>
>> Yes.  The idea to to use a mainstream
>> programming language instead of Jam
>> (which has a lot of odd quirks).
>>
>>>   Is this an ongoing project?
>>
>> I don't think there's been any major work
>> done on this for a while and a lot of modules
>> are still unported.
>>
> Thanks.  Was there ever anything written up about the goals?  Was the
> idea to replace Jamfiles or keep them more or less the same but allow for
> python logic?  Was the idea abandoned because fresh starts like SCons made
> more sense?

It was not so much abandoned as hit a wall I was not willing to jump over back
then. Some time ago I took a month sabbatical to update all Python modules, and
I mostly succeeded as far as core goes, the stuff in src/build in current git
repo. Most regression tests passed, and running:

        b2 --python --with-libraries=program_options

worked successfully in Boost.

What did not went as smoothly is updating all the tools, and in particularly things
like linking C++ code against Python, ironically. The code in tools/python.jam is
extremely complicated, supporting things like using msvc python.dll while running
from cygwin shell, and is less commented that I would like, and I did not have
convenient Windows box even. So, I gave up at this point.

This git transition, however, shows that people are more willing to suffer short-term
pain that I though, so maybe I'll restart this effort, basically dropping support for
such complicated use cases unless interested parties step up.

Also, Steven did significant work since then, optimizing and rewriting core algorithms,
so the Python code is now out-of-date again - but that's not a big problem as the tools
support.

- Volodya