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

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] bjam 4.0.. in C++
From: Rene Rivera (grafikrobot_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-05-23 15:56:54

On 5/23/2010 11:45 AM, Stefan Seefeld wrote:
> 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.

OK, got it. And a rewrite would only make that more possible. But in 
order to get there it's much easier build and get working a port that 
can be verified to work just like the current tool. Then the internals 
become reliably usable.

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