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From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-13 08:32:09


Vladimir Prus <ghost_at_[hidden]> writes:

> On Friday 10 February 2006 21:11, David Abrahams wrote:
>> ...do we have in Boost.Build?
>>
>> Seems to me we have
>>
>> bjam -jamoption -sVARIABLE=setting --bboption --bboption=value
>> feature=value ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> Not sure we're using
>> this one
>>
>> Somehow this just seems too confusing. Am I missing something?
>
> I think that would be confusing to have it all, but:
>
> 1. The -sVARIABLE=setting is not used in V2, at least I never used
> it.

I know, but v1 isn't gone yet. Even after it is, users will have it
in their brains from v1, and it's on various mirrors around the web.
Probably the Wiki also.

> 2. --bboption=value is used only in help system.

And that somehow makes it less of a factor? The help system is one of
the most exposed parts of BB.

I've certainly used this syntax in BBv1 for other things, e.g.

     "--debugger=devenv /debugexe"

that I would like to see replicated in v2.

> So, the commonly used options are
>
> -jamoption --bboption feature=value

You don't think the help system will be commonly used?

> and -jamoption are used mostly for -d* options. Maybe, we can add --options
> for all -joption, i.e, if we have
>
> -n
>
> we can add
>
> --dry-run
>
> with the same effect. Do you think that will improve things?

Maybe. Do you think new users will really not write

        --feature=value

by mistake? I think *I've* done that, as a matter of fact. It's
especially bad because we don't, IIUC, detect unused --options.

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

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