subvariants questions

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-05-06 09:38:33

I'm now thinking about targets, subvariants and paths for them and it does 
not seem as simple as I expected. Before I start writing long messages, I 
have a quick question -- we were planning that if some target, for example 
object file, is used by two main targets, and neither has any explicit 
requirements, than we believe that this object file can be built only once. 
But... if we allow generators to arbitrary change property set, we cannot 
guarantee that this two objects use exactly the same set of free properties.

What's more: we can have some intermediate target build with a set of free 
properties which is not equal to either free properties of its parent, or 
main target that uses it -- in which directory will be put it.

And the final question: why do we care which dir is used for storing 
particular subvariant. I have a vague feeling that this makes for better UI 
("in case user wants to get some subvariant and do something with it"), but 
this is poor explanation. Anyone got better?

- Volodya