Re: [boost] cross-project dependencies

From: David Abrahams (gclbb-jamboost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-09-12 08:46:35

Vladimir Prus <ghost_at_[hidden]> writes:

> David Abrahams wrote:
>
>> > Hmm... IIRC, it was discussed between Ali, myself, and *you* some time
>> > ago. In short, it was decided that @ does not add anything.
>>
>> Yes, but now some crazy "//" notation which I don't understand has
>> shown up. Where did that come from and why do we have it?
>
>
> Well, the motivation is explained by Ali at the very end of 
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.build/2720/
>
> Some followups are in
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.build/2736/
>
> "//" is the separator between project-id and target-id. 

Oh. We never discussed using that notation, which may explain my
confusion. Well, it's minimal and complete, but:

1. I am concerned that on some systems // is used to write remote
paths.

2. People read paths left-to-right. I thought it was helpful to
have an @ at the beginning to say "this is a project path".

3. It seems to me that using "//" for the usual case is syntactic
overkill. Should it be reserved for the case where you are
specifying a multi-component path w.r.t. a project, i.e.

some/project//path/to/file

but

some/project/target

> In fact, I almost regret that I agreed to change target-id syntax
> based on subjective judgements. Apparently, what was confusing for
> Ali was ok for you, and now you're confused about target-ids.

In fairness, we never discussed the // notation; I'm not sure it was
OK for Ali.

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