Re: [jamboost] Re: Minimal Boost.Jam

From: Alan Gutierrez (alan-jamboost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-01-02 20:32:55

* David Abrahams <dave_at_[hidden]> [2005-01-02 19:53]:
> 
> Alan Gutierrez wrote:
> > * David Abrahams <dave_at_[hidden]> [2005-01-02 12:19]:
> >> 
> >> Alan Gutierrez wrote:

> > I know. I was being rethorical.

> I don't know what to say. I was just trying to help and if you
> ask questions I'll expect that you want to know the answer. Would
> you mind clearly labelling the rhetorical ones so I can ignore them?

Rodger. Wilco.

I appreciate your help. I want this bit of the tread to go away.
I apologize.

> >> > I would like to create a minimal Boost.Jam file. One that
> >> > generates no warnings.

> >> DEPENDS all : Jamfile ;

> Okay. Be clear that Jamfile uses low-level Perforce Jam
> primitives. It is not really a Boost.Build Jamfile...

Yes. A minimal Jamfile is something I wanted to keep in my notes
on BBv2, so's I had a place to start to experiment with Jam the
language.

> > I'm beginning to see how Jam creates dependencies. I don't have
> > the vocabulary to describe it yet. There are types, they have
> > rules for creation, and if one is missing... I'm watching the
> > build process with --debug-generators on and it explains a lot.

> ... and if you're watching generators, you're strictly in the BBv2
> domain, at a much higher level than that of Boost.Jam. It
> actually explains little or nothing about the way Jam creates
> dependencies.

I'm new to modern C++. With Java, I found that it wasn't until
I'd gotten serious about Ant, that I could be an effective
programmer.

I expect that I'm going to have to know BBv2 in a little more
depth than the designers might expect. I'm cool with that as a
user.

I don't write Ant files, I generate them from XSLT. I write Ant
tasks in Java. With make, I'll create shell and Perl utilties as
I needed them.

I'm want to know how BBv2 works. If Boost.Jam and Boost.Build
work on my target platforms, then they would probably be useful
in the creation of build utilities.

I know that the user will have the interpreter installed. I don't
have to send them out looking for cygwin, Perl, or Python. I
imagine that if a task to too complex for BBv2 scripting, that I
could bootstrap a C++ program that could perform the task.

~ There's a challenge here. Ant is based on Java, and make is tool
for use with shell programming. There are enough resources for
Java and shell programming available, that a user should be able
to answer many questions from Google. A user doesn't have to ask
what is Java and what is Ant. It is obvious, since the user is
most likely a Java programmer.

Kind regards.

--
Alan Gutierrez - alan_at_[hidden]