Re: [jamboost] GLOB implemented; what to do with it?

From: Toon Knapen (toon.knapen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-08 05:54:28

Vladimir Prus wrote:

> David Abrahams wrote:
> 
>>I like the name "GLOB", if the primitive is going to actually do globbing.
>>
>>The very simplest primitive would be one that returns the names of all
>>files in a given directory. We could then implement GLOB in Jam rules,
>>using regular expressions. In general I have been in favor of making the
>>built-in rules as primitive as possible and doing as much as is feasible at
>>the interpreted level.
>>
> 
> I've implemented GLOB builtin recently. The question is if we really need it 
> now? I ask just because I never desperately needed GLOB myself and adding new 
> features without discussion might be dangerous, especially if Boost.Jam 
> should be in sync with Perforce Jam (which is talked about in other thread).
> 
> GLOB works the following way: 
> 1. It takes one arguments (might take sevaral and process then all)
> 2. It splits the arguments into directory name and everything following it.
> 3. The second part is taken to be wildcard. Filenames in named directory are 
> matched against the wildcard, and the list of those which matches is returned.
> 
> For example
> 
> [ GLOB subdir/* ] 
> 
> might return
> 
> subdir/a.c subdir/b.c
> 
> 
> If it is decided that GLOB is needed, I'll write more tests, document the 
> feature and check it in. Something that works (but needs cleanup)
> is in
> http://chronos.cs.msu.su/~ghost/projects/jam_src.tar.gz
> http://chronos.cs.msu.su/~ghost/projects/jam_src.diff

I guess I should restate that I very much appreciate this feature.
To release the burden on a developer for creating a new file in the 
project, this feature would allow the system to automatically detect 
that a new file is added (the developer thus does not have to add it 
into some variable in some jamfile) and I can automatically in jam also 
add it to the CVS : it's all about automation (which is the reason we 
have computers right ?)