Re: [jamboost] Re: thoughts and comments on bjam/Boost.Build V2

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-02-04 02:16:36

Samuel Krempp wrote:
> Vladimir Prus wrote:
> >> [4] How do you tell Build what compilers to use? The command line:
> >> bjam -sTOOLS=gcc
> >>
> >> does not work unless gcc is the first tool in user-config.jam! (Is this
> >> me being braindead!?)
> >
> > You'd use
> >
> > bjam gcc
> >
> > The "-sTOOLS" syntax is gone in V2.
>
> Why is this so ?

I think we wanted to move away from using variable to specify things anywhere.

> It seems to me too much clever interpretation of strings eventually
> backfires and just confuse the user.

Hmm... is "gcc" above really confusing. I recall someone gave position opinion 
of this very syntax.

> I think Boost.Build already lacks a bit of redundancy information in its
> syntax.
> Having a little redundancy in the syntax is good as it allows more helpful
> error messages. ATM an error in a jamfile/project-root.jam typically shows
> up at the very end of processing, nested insid a dozen line reports of
> internal jam file of the Boost.Build system.

That's a problem, true. 
I though that we probably should print more user-friendly context on errors. 
E.g. when building target 'a', a message "Building 'a'" would be added to 
context and printed on error.

- Volodya