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From: Jody Hagins (jody-boost-011304_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-12-16 11:54:26


On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 10:42:13 -0500
David Abrahams <dave_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> The only real problem now is that there are a plethora of different
> build / configuration systems out there. Should BBv2 try to cater to
> each one? We could generate pkg-config files in addition to Jamfiles,
> oh and we could generate Makefiles and autoconf files and Visual
> Studio Projects and Metrowerks projects and...
>
> I think the answer is that we (the BB maintainers) should only feel
> responsible for generating the Jamfiles, and we should invite
> interested parties to submit Boost.Build support for the other things.

Right. However, the main problem is not which build tool I use, but how
I can integrate the boost libraries into my build process.
Specifically, I must build my code with the same flags and options that
boost is built. If my project does not use jamfiles, this is very
difficult, because I have no way of knowing what options to use. In a
large project, I may be using several different libraries, each built
with a different build system. To me, that is ok, as long as there is
some way for me to grab those options from some other program or script
so that I can incorporate them into my other builds.

I do not think anyone is suggesting that Boost support all build
environments. Instead, I think people are wanting a way to extract the
build information in an easy manner. For example, a big help would be
to go to the root of boost, and call bjam just like I would to build my
libraries, except pass in another option that is interpreted as "Pretend
to build each library, but instead of actually doing the build steps,
spit out all the build options for each library."

Maybe that is what you were describing earlier, but instead of it being
a jam file, maybe something more like a simple config file containing
compile and link options for each library.


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