Re: [BBv2] preliminary darwin (MacOS X) toolset file

From: Christopher Currie (gclbb-jamboost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-08-05 08:46:53

> Now back to Darwin :-) Your toolset is fine, but I have a question. Should 
> this really be a separate toolset, or just some conditional logic in gcc.jam? 
> Does it make sense to use both unmodifed gcc and darwin toolset in OSX? If so, 
> then it's better be separate toolset. In other case, I'm not sure. What do 
> you think?

I created a separate darwin toolset for two reasons:

1. That's the way it was done for BBv1, so when we migrate Boost it 
would be consistent
2. The MacOS linker is quite a bit different than any other linker. 
Certain flags that are supported by the GNU linker and other UNIX-like 
linkers (such as -Bstatic and -Bdynamic to control library linkage) are 
not supported by the MacOS linker.

I figured it was simpler and cleaner to have the Darwin toolset inherit 
from GCC, rather than have lots of conditional compilation everywhere.

I agree it would be convenient if at some point we could detect MacOS in 
the GCC toolset and then do the right thing. Is there, perhaps, value in 
separating compiler toolsets from linker toolsets? An alternative could 
be having the GCC toolset import the darwin toolset, and somehow make it 
the default if it detects MacOS.

Regards,
Christopher