[boost] Re: Customer Friendlier Boost Installation

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-31 20:58:41

"Hendrik Schober" <boost_at_[hidden]> writes:

> David Abrahams <dave_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>> [...]
>> > > >   "Parsing jam file"?
>> > > >   Or better yet: "parsing build rules"?
>> > >
>> > > Well, it's much more than parsing.  [...]
>> >
>> > "Determining what needs to be built"?
>>
>> Not really accurate.
>>
>> > "Determining the work required to build Boost"?
>>
>> Kinda vague.
>>
>> I guess I'd say "building dependency graph."  That's about as accurate
>> as possible in this case.
>
>   Honestly, I think you're putting much too much
>   effort into this. For one, this was only a small
>   destraction. Further, those who know what the
>   tool is doing exactly obviously didn't mind the
>   pause. And those who are to be destracted by it
>   don't know enough to appreciate these efforts.
>   Heck, maybe even another "be patient..." would
>   do.

Okay.  Just some indication that it's working on something will be enough.

>   If I just know the thing doesn't hang but it's
>   doing a lengthy operation everything will be a
>   lot better than it was.
>
>> [...]
>> > There's always the old standby approach of printing, in
>> > succession, the following strings:
>> >
>> >    "\r-"
>> >    "\r\"
>> >    "\r|"
>> >    "\r/"
>> >    repeat
>> >
>> [...]

I think I've subscribed to that suggestion now.

>   How about only printing
>     Bulding Boost.Threads...
>     ...Success.
>     Building Boost.XYZ...
>     ...Success.
>   etc.? 

Yes, I was thinking of something similar.  That will require some
significant overhaul of the build system, though, including bjam, I
think.

>   This is something to be used by developers.
>   They have an idea of how long it takes to compile
>   a bunch of cpp files and put them into a library
>   and won't get nervous if the tool just eats up
>   CPU time without emitting something for a few
>   minutes.

True.  Unless they're not used to compiling template-heavy code ;-)

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