Re: The right configuration mechanism

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-08-05 21:31:14

"Jonathan Turkanis" <technews_at_[hidden]> writes:

> David Abrahams wrote:
>> "Jonathan Turkanis" <technews_at_[hidden]> writes:
>>
>>> Vladimir Prus wrote:
>>>> [resend, previous message did not appear on gmane]
>>>>
>>>> I would like to make the final attempt to settle on the right
>>>> approach to configure toolsets. I'd appreciate comments from
>>>> everybody on the list! It's the last time that we can tweak the
>>>> syntax.
>>>
>>> Will the syntax described in "C++ Cookbook" still be supported? The
>>> book has gone into copy editing now; I can still change stuff but
>>> not for much longer.
>>>
>>> Jonathan
>>
>> You wrote the "C++ Cookbook?" Who knows what syntax you used there?
>> I sure don't!
>
> I was mostly addressing Volodya, who's read a draft of the chapter on Build
> systems, but I should have explained more, since others are reading:
>
> I've written two chapters of O'Reilly C++ Cookbook, which is scheduled to come
> out in Nov 2005. It contains five "recipes" about using Boost.Build, the first
> of which described installation and configuration.

Wow, that is too cool!

> The types of sytax I describe are
>
> using toolset-name ;
>
> if there's just one version of a toolset and it's installed in a standard
> location,
>
> using toolset-name : : command ;
>
> if there's just one version of a toolset but its installed in a non-standard
> location, and
>
> using toolset-name : version-name-1 : command-1 ;
> ...
> using toolset-name : version-name-N : command-N ;
>
> if there's more than one version of a toolset.
>
> If this syntax might not work after the official release of BB.v2,
> I'll just say "follow the instructions in user-config.jam" (assuming
> that some good instructions will be put there).

There's always some risk in documenting evolving software... but I
think the plan was to keep "using" around for backward compatibility
and introduce "configure."

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