From: Glen Starchman <glen@...>
Date: 2001-06-28T01:51:36+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:16974] Re: Extension building

> I pick Jam because (i) i love it ;-) (ii) Jamfiles are platform independent 
> (with a little preparation), small, and easy to read/write. (iii) you can 
> build the default build environment into the binary (iv) make sucks.

I have been round and round on the python mailing lists regarding a
similar issue, but I am on the opposite side of the fence from you. I
would prefer to *use* make, rather than create yet another abstraction
in the build process. With Python they added the DistUtils package.
DistUtils, while a wonderful piece of software, seems to me to
complicate the build process by forcing me to write a python script in
order to build a makefile. 

I prefer to use the Autoconf/Automake tools to build a makefile. My
reasons: 1) make is, like it or not, a standard that isn't going away
anytime soon, 2) I develop 90% of my software on some flavor of Unix,
so I don't have to deal with MS's nmake, 3) Using Autoconf allows me a
single point of failure! Yes, I don't have to dig through ten different
scripts to find out why my build failed, 4) other (competent) developers
understand Makefiles... how many people use Jam? 

> 
> It would be quite a reorganisation of the build environment so I don't expect 
> immediate adoption :-), but moving away from the disaster-zone that is make 
> can only be a good thing and it'd be nice to see Ruby leading the way.
> 
> Worth a look?
> 
> Tony
> =====================
> Tony Smith
> tony at smee dot org
> =====================
-- 
Glen Starchman
Enabled Ventures/Enabled Technology Group
glen@enabledventures.com
206.234.7330