[boost] Re: Customer Friendlier Boost Installation

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-26 17:24:04

"Peter Dimov" <pdimov_at_[hidden]> writes:

> David Abrahams wrote:
>> "Peter Dimov" <pdimov_at_[hidden]> writes:
>>
>>> Or can bjam figure these out automatically from the target name of
>>> "library-sgd-mt-whatever.lib"? It didn't occur to me to try it. ;-)
>>
>> No, it can't.  The presumption is that -SBUILD="..." specifications
>> are higher level than sgd-mt-whatever abbreviated tag strings.  Of
>> course, -sBUILD is still pretty awful in v1.  In v2 you just write,
>> e.g.
>>
>>      bjam threading=multi link=static <library-name>
>>
>> if you want to build a library with specific options.
>
> This is better. But my point is that the linker doesn't tell me
> anything about threading=multi or link=static. It tells me the exact
> name of the .lib file, and I'm supposed to reverse engineer the
> sgd-mt-whatever string and come up with the higher-level options. 

Oh, weird.  I just never thought of it from the angle that you're
going to wait for an error and then figure out what to build.  But I
suppose you'll have the same problem if you built the wrong thing to
begin with; then you'll still have to poke around to figure out how
the system wants you to describe the library.

> If I am expected to be able to do that, so can Boost.Build, right?

Well, let me put it this way: in theory it can, but the library name
can't be treated like an ordinary target.  We could see if we can find
a target with that name, and if not, try to decode it as a tagged
library name and construct a new virtual command-line.

> It can even get them right the first time.  I average about 2.5
> tries.

:)

Good idea.  Could you put this on
http://www.crystalclearsoftware.com/cgi-bin/boost_wiki/wiki.pl?Boost.Build_V2/Todo
?

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com