Re: [Boost-build] Ticket #2232: Documentation build needs to detect missing prerequisites

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-08-20 11:53:43

Eric Niebler wrote:
> 
> Vladimir Prus wrote:
>> Beman Dawes wrote:
>>
>>> The following tools have to be installed:
>>>
>>>     libxml2, libxslt, doxygen, docbook-xml42, docbook-xsl, tetex (?),
>>>     ghostscript
>>
>> This list seems fairly strange to me:
>>
>> - How comes we depend on tetex? And ghostscript? Is this always 
>> necessary for building docs, or just for maintaining some files that 
>> are subsequently
>> included into final docs? If the latter, then it's not our problem. If 
>> the
>> former, then how comes?
> 
> This is because the Accumulators docs have LaTeX formulas embedded in 
> Doxygen comments directly in the C++ source code. The Accumulators 
> reference section is built using Doxygen, which needs to invoke LaTeX to 
> process the formulas, generate the images and link to them correctly.

I don't have any problem with this long tool chain, per se.

But..., when one of the tools isn't present, or the user-config.jam file 
is misconfigured, there needs to an explicit and highly visible error 
message that tells you what to do to fix the problem.

For example, I'm working with some lengthy toolchains on Linux right 
now. If I try to use the progrma linsmith, and it isn't installed, here 
is the message I get:

     The program 'linsmith' is currently not installed.  You can install
     it by typing:
     sudo apt-get install linsmith
     bash: linsmith: command not found

That tells me exactly what is wrong and what to do to fix it.

That's what I'm asking for the docs stuff, and of other Boost tools in 
general.

--Beman