Re: [Boost-build] Python port development

Subject: Re: [Boost-build] Python port development
From: Stefan Seefeld (seefeld_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-07-08 14:35:06

On 07/08/2010 03:29 PM, Robert Ramey wrote:
> I tried the link in the original
> post but my firefox browser sets off a bunch of security alarms
> which I am reluctant to override.

Yeah, that's very unfortunate.

>    I guess the title "Python Port"
> suggested to me that it was a port of the current system
> to python.
>
> Of course if I had understood that this is a whole new scripting language
> for
> building things like boost, I might have made a totally
> different observation.  As it stands, I have no idea
> what's being attempted here.
>    

Let me copy&paste some high-level bits (from the above link) her:

    Why? ¶ <https://trac.lvk.cs.msu.su/boost.build/wiki/PythonPort#Why>

Boost.Build V2 is mostly implemented in the interpreted language of the 
underlying build tool, and it has a number of problems:

    * No user knows that language, making it hard to extend Boost.Build
      or become new developer.
    * The language is strange at times, and not very nicely documented.
    * There's no standard libraries, so every new functionality should
      be implemented from scratch
    * The only data structure in the language is list of strings. This
      makes many tests cumbersome, and leads to excessive memory
      consumption and poor performance on some workloads.

     Stefan

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