[Boost-build] Suggestions...

From: Jurko Gospodnetiæ (jurko.gospodnetic_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-12-28 09:17:56

   Hi.

   Some suggestions/comments for Boost Build.

     * virtual-target.jam rule recent-targets rule comment seems truncated.

     * 'import class ;' causes an ugly crash.

     * Remove unused type.change-generated-target-suffix and related 
rules or add tests for them.

     * Error message 'syntax error at EOF' should state the file in 
question.

     * Totally misleading error messages in case you type in 'local' in 
front of an action definition.

     * Duplicated property-set.create rule implementation should be 
removed from the property-set.jam file as it is implemented as a native 
rule. Most likely the same holds for other native rules as well.

     * Document the built-in NATIVE_RULE rule.

     * Update documentation to note that Jamfile and Jamroot files may 
also be named Jamfile.jam & Jamroot.jam. The extensions make it much 
easier to configure different tools so they treat these files like 
regular Boost Jam scripts (e.g. make an editor open them by default, 
make FTP transfer them as ASCII files, etc...). Possibly also deprecate 
other names for these files.

     * Document that when you register a type Boost Build automatically 
prepares the following features for that type.
         * <target-type>.
         * <main-target-type>.
             * When building a main target <main-target-type>type will 
be defined with the target's type.
                 * Need to document what a main target is.
         * <base-target-type>.
             * When building a target <base-target-type>base-type will 
be defined with all base types of the given target's type.

     * Document how Jamfiles are expected to be written in order to be 
correctly accessed by the --help system.
         * First comment block not containing the word [Cc]opyright is 
interpreted as the module's documentation.
             * Brief copyright information consists of the first sentence.
                 * Should not contain '. ' in it.
         * Last comment block containing the word [Cc]opyright is 
interpreted as copyright information.
             * Brief copyright information consists of the first sentence.
                 * Should not contain '. ' in it.

     * --help system should but is not displaying project specific help 
in non top-level projects.

     * Upgrade the --help system to work with files not on the 
BOOST_BUILD_PATH like 'Jamfile', 'Jamroot' or local project .jam files.

     * Report an error in case a project rule is used more than once in 
a single project.

     * Make documentation more explicit about the fact that there may be 
at most one project per folder. Took me a while to realize that there 
many not be two projects in a single folder, e.g. two in a single 
Jamfile or one in the Jamfile and one in the Jamroot file.

     * Calling bjam with a Jamfile containing an invalid build-project 
rule such as 'build-project //' causes it to exit silently.

     * Allow defining a derived variant with disabling instead of only 
adding to features defined on the base type variant. E.g. defining a 
releaseWithAsserts variant which should be the same as release but 
should not have NDEBUG defined.

     * Improve the import rule so it takes an additional path parameter 
which would then use that path instead of the one from BOOST_BUILD_PATH 
as the search path or allow it to take a path to the module file instead 
of just the name.

     * Clean up the documentation on the differences between <use> and
<dependency> features.
         * One difference seen in tools/stage.jam install-target-class.
.collect-targets() rule.

     * Update command-line options documentation with package.jam 
package.install rule related options: --prefix, --exec-prefix, --bindir, 
--libdir, --includedir.
         * --exec-prefix option seems to be ignored in code and should 
be removed.

     * Update the main Boost Jamfile comment to use the correct 
--build-dir command-line option name instead of --builddir.

     * Make Boost Build work with non-ascii characters in folder names.
         * E.g. make path-constant XXX : "." set XXX to contain correct 
characters.
         * Could be the OS shell problem.

     * Make Boost Build work correctly with short paths on Windows.
         * Currently if a short path is specified with the --bindir 
command-line option used by the package.install rule the build will fail 
if the folder already exists and its full name is different from its 
short name.

   Hope this helps.

   Best regards,
     Jurko Gospodnetiæ