Re: [jamboost] The right configuration mechanism

From: Rene Rivera (grafik.list_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-08-05 10:22:35

Vladimir Prus wrote:

I'll comment on the non-auto-detection aspects a bit later...

> Auto-detection
> --------------
> 
> If I understand correctly, the point of msvc-config experiment was two
> 1. Use registry for configuration
> 2. Configure all found toolsets.

Yes.

> Speaking of (1), if Windows users find that method to be better, then I don't 
> know why not change msvc.jam accordingly.

I agree of course :-) We should always prefer the least fragile method.

> Speaking of (2) the feature is fine, but:
> 1. I don't want "import msvc-config ; " syntax. We need a clean interface.

No one does, not even me ;-)

> 2. It's possible to do such auto-configuration with
> 
> using msvc ;
> 
> but I'm not sure if ordinary users want to have all installed toolsets 
> configured. Opinions?

Well first we should define "ordinary users". For me that's someone who 
has just unpacked Boost and is about to run "bjam --v2 install" at the 
root, without making any configuration or other changes, i.e. a pristine 
start. With that in mind I would expect ordinary users to want that 
first bjam command to "just work". It should detect the likely singular 
toolset they have installed and use it without complaints. This brings 
up the possibility of doing three different things for this bare 
auto-detection:

a) Detect all toolsets, and build using all of them. This has the 
drawback of a user possibly getting much more than what they expected 
from that install.

b) Detect all toolsets, and build only with the latest version of each.

c) Detect all toolsets, and build only with a single latest toolset for 
the platform based on an ordered preference. For example on Windows we 
would prefer to use, in this order: msvc, intel, como, gcc, borland.

d) All of the above. There's always a fourth choice ;-)

Wanting to always satisfy as many people as possible I would prefer to 
have a way of handling all (a), (b), and (c). And it could be done if we 
do (c) out of the box with a more intelligent default user-config. 
Having (a) available as "using all : all ;" for all toolsets and "using 
msvc : all ;" for individual ones. And having (b) available as "using 
all : default ;" and "using msvc : default;".

> 3. There are two interface approached to request configuration of all 
> versions:
> 
> using msvc : all ; # 'all' is a special value for version.
> configure-all-versions msvc ;
> 
> If "using" is renamed to "configure", then some word having "configure" as 
> part can be used to request configuration of all versions. Say: 
> "auto-configure", "configure-all", "configure-all-versions".

To expand and clarify what I mention above, this is what I would 
consider ideal...

Detects and configures specific version of 'msvc':

using msvc : 8.0 ;

Detects and configures all versions of 'msvc':

using msvc : all ;

Detects and configures the latest version of 'msvc':

using msvc : default ;

Detects and configures all versions of all toolsets: (a)

using all : all ;

Detects and configures latest version of all toolsets: (b)

using all : default ;

Detects and configures the latest version of most preferred toolset of 
the platform: (c)

using default : default ;

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