jam build system

From: John Maddock (John_Maddock_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-07-22 06:38:44

Dave,

I've been trying out the new jam build system but so far haven't persuade
anything to build!

First off in the docs you say:

"Jam can be found at http://www.perforce.com/jam/jam.html. "

But doesn't the current system require FTJam?

BTW it would very helpful if the latest FTJam sources were mirrored as part
of boost (perhaps as a "vendor branch"?).

The -fallyourbase-path option is a complete pain, not least because this
must surely be about the least intuitive name I've every seen,
"boost-base.jam" maybe would be better?

The docs lack any "end user" documentation - I'm not talking about boost
users writing jamfiles here, just step by step instructions for particular
compilers - I do appreciate though that this is a fair amount of work.

You say:

"To use the build system, the following must be located in your project's
root directory, or in directories given by the path variables indicated
below. "

But why?  Can't these files be located based upon the location of
allyourbase.jam?  Failing that why _two_ environment variables instead of
one?  Even better can't boost-jam support files be installed in a system
wide location?

Moving on to trying out jam, I notice that the version checked into the
main branch lacks the sample project sub-directories, likewise the python
Jamfile seems to be missing.  So I tried the thread library instead - the
initial problem was caused by the fact that the compiler couldn't find the
boost include files, opening up the Jamfile I see:

        ## Requirements ##
        : <include>c:/boost
          <include>..

which I eddited to point to my boost install - but that can't be the right
way to do this can it?

However I still couldn't get the thread library to build - it compained
about multithreading support not being turned on (#error's in the headers),
so I suppose I need to do something here but what?

Moving on to the regex Jamfile you've just checked in - I can build with
gcc (at last!) - but not as you say with Borland or VC6 - for these when
building a dll I need to define BOOST_RE_BUILD_DLL - how do I ensure that
this gets defined when I need it, and only when I need it?

BTW going back to the gcc build of regex, I see only a debug static lib
build, even though it's under a "runtime-link-dynamic" sub-dirtectory,
specifying -sBUILD=release gets me the release version though, but
shouldn't this be produced anyway - or am I missing something?

- John Maddock
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/john_maddock/