Re: [Boost-build] Future development

From: Jordan Rosenthal (jr_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-10-16 12:15:36

> on Mon Oct 15 2007, Bill Hoffman <bill.hoffman-AT-kitware.com> wrote:
> 
>>> into the system.  My question is, do we really need to be able to
>>> specify arbitrary combinations of tools on the bjam/cmake command
>>> line, or is it enough to configure the combinations we're interested
>>> in, each using its own build tree?

Hi,

I'm a bit of a lurker on this list...I've been using Boost.Build on and 
off for a few years now for a couple of projects on which I work.  I 
thought I'd chime in on my particular use case since it applies here.

I have software which needs to be built differently depending on the 
environment in which it will run.  Some variants (all Linux/gcc):

- an executable that runs on a 32-bit platform with some OS version
- an executable that runs on a 64-bit platform as a fully 64-bit program 
  with a different OS version
- an executable that runs on a 64-bit platform as a 32-bit program with 
yet another OS version
- a shared library that gets linked into another program that runs in 
any of the above configurations
- many of the above have different compile options, includes, etc.

The reason for the many versions is that my code needs to compile on and 
run in a heterogeneous lab environment with many different machines.

The different OS versions on Linux implies (for me) different libc 
versions, which means I need to use different versions of gcc.  I have 
found the ability to make any or all of these variants simply using the 
command line an indispensable feature.

Also, though it's slightly outside this particular discussion, I'd like 
to add that my experience with Boost.Build resonates with the 
perceptions mentioned on this list before:

1) The documentation needs work (thought I have seen incredible 
improvements in it since I first started....bravo!)

2) It is too hard to extend the system (or more precisely I guess, there 
is too large a learning curve).  I found myself taking _way_ too long 
trying to customize the code to do something I thought would be somewhat 
trivial once I got the basics down...it wasn't.  I was digging in the 
guts of the Boost.Build trying to figure out what I needed to do, which 
is never fun.

Anyway, I hope these comments from this casual user helps.

Jordan