[boost] Re: Customer Friendlier Boost Installation

From: Jeff Flinn (TriumphSprint2000_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-26 11:07:21

"Rene Rivera" <grafik.list_at_[hidden]> wrote in message 
news:4295E416.6030803_at_redshift-software.com...
> David Abrahams wrote:
>>>and the inconsistency in naming for the VC targets:
>>>
>>>msvc   // VC6.5 can we add vc6_5?
>>>vc7    // VC7   would vc7_0 be better?
>>>vc-7_1 // VC7.1 why the dash? why not vc7_1?
>>
>> The dash is there for dumb reasons: we call the toolset files 
>> <toolsetname>-tools.jam
>>
>> and for the purposes of building a Boost distro on CD we can't have
>> filenames with multiple '.' characters in them, so we changed '.' to
>> '_' in the names of things like vc-7.1-tools.jam.  But we should have
>> changed BBv1 to allow users to type a '.' on the command-line and
>> translate it internally when we made that change; it would be pretty
>> easy.  As for naming consistency, yes, it would probably be better.
>>
>> BBv2 fixes all of these problems, and we've been reluctant to make
>> trivial improvements in BBv1 because it's been so long anticipated
>> that it would be retired.  Now it looks like it won't be retired until
>> just after 1.33, so it's a toss-up whether we should do anything about
>> it.  I'm willing to go either way.
>
> It's easy enough to add vc-7_0-tools.jam, and vc-6_5-tools.jam that just 
> refer to the current files. So I think we can go ahead and do it.
>
> The "." to "_" translation might be harder as there a people who have 
> their own toolsets with x.x in them. We'll have to think about that one.

It just occurred to me that as an infrequent command line user, that the 
dashes in names are intimidating because I have always thought that '-' is a 
special character for introducing a parameter. So that makes 'vc-7_1' look 
more complex than it may really be.

Do most users ever see(or need be concerned with) what these parameters 
eventually expand to?

Jeff Flinn