RE: Tired of [auto]make.

[korbb@egcs.cygnus.com]

Reply-To: ddsinc09@ix.netcom.com
*PLEASE* if you press the "Reply" button, edit my address.  Thanks.


Have I got the tool for you. :-)

Jonas wrote:
> > I tried using automake and found it impossible.  It's nice when you
> > get a package and say configure ; make and it works, but writing the
> > thing yourself is a nightmare.  It's all macros defined heaven knows
> > where.
> 
> How about rewriting Automake in Scheme? :)  This is from the GNU
> tasklist;
> 
>      * Rewrite Automake in Scheme, so it can run in Guile. Right now it
>        is written in Perl. There are also other programs, not terribly
>        long, which we would also like to have rewritten in Scheme.

I am inches away from a release of AutoGen that ought to
be truely portable to most any POSIX machine with an ANSI-compliant
C compiler.  See:

    http://autogen.freeservers.com

The current version has trouble on 64 bit machines and machines
where bizarre structures are used to pass varargs (HPUX, Irix,...).

The purpose of AutoGen is to be able to take a simple-syntax
description (like, for example, the targets in a directory),
and use that information to fill out a template.  Though the
released version uses a private RPN syntax, I also have a
working prototype that uses Guile's Scheme.  It is my intention
to prototype an automake/autoconf scheme in the July or August
time frame.  (I need the time to ensure the current release
won't start any fires. :)