Re: Building/testing extensions: boost-python-runtest

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-09-11 09:45:43

The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
that has been posted to gmane.comp.python.c++ as well.

"Niall Douglas" <s_sourceforge_at_[hidden]> writes:

> On 10 Sep 2004 at 12:13, David Abrahams wrote:
>
>> G> Scons scripts are python, and scons itself is also python.
>> >
>> > Imagine how easy life is if you have make, but written in python, so
>> > you can easily access it's internals or change any aspect from the
>> > makefile (not that you would typically need to).
>> >
>> > scons src itself is actually quite small, as well.
>> 
>> I like the idea of Scons and have been following its development
>> since before it started ;-). I am also interested in the idea of
>> replacing the Boost.Build core with Scons. I'm asking these questions
>> because I want to be sure that Boost.Build itself is still providing
>> important advantages.
>
> Have you considered writing a parser in python which translates jam 
> files into scons operations? This way you get the best of both 
> worlds. scons can also be used as a library rather than just 
> standalone - just import it and go.

I have considered that. Dealing with the existing Jamfile syntax is
probably the least of my concerns. First there would be a major
project to reimplement most of the Boost.Build logic in Python.
Building a system where Jamfiles can be expressed in pure Python is
the first (big) step.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com