Re: [Boost-build] bjam 4.0.. in C++

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] bjam 4.0.. in C++
From: Stefan Seefeld (seefeld_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-05-23 12:45:01

On 05/23/2010 12:24 PM, Rene Rivera wrote:
> On 5/23/2010 11:03 AM, Stefan Seefeld wrote:
> [cut]
>> Why do you insist to do the parsing in C++ ? Why not use a scripting
>> language (lua, python) for it ?
> [cut]
>> Circular dependencies is one of the core issues in boost. Having the
>> boost build system depend on boost only makes it worse.
>
> Yep.. Which is why I'm still thinking how to go about this rewrite. I 
> do want to minimize the dependency pain. But I really do not look 
> forward to either writing more "C" code or adding more required 
> dependencies. I guess depending on Boost is tantamount to depending on 
> Python though ;-) Doing this in Lua is an option, since it's easy to 
> embed and is highly transportable. But I'm less likely to actually get 
> something done in Lua since I'm a novice at it. But the use of a 
> scripting language would mean that it would have to support a variety 
> of library, or language, utilities equivalent to C++/STD.

My original proposal was to separate the core part (which could actually 
become a library) from the frontend. That frontend could then be built 
with different existing interpreters, and lua and python are just two 
IMO rather obvious examples. Both of these languages have good coverage 
of basic functionality such as string manipulation, as well as a 
system-level API. However, none of this needs to be a requirement to the 
bjam core itself, only to a particular build system (such as 
boost.build) which uses these features.

     Stefan

-- 
       ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...