From: Ed L Cashin <ecashin@...>
Date: 2001-07-05T23:24:20+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:17307] Re: Extension building

Tony Smith <tony@smee.org> writes:

....
> Why not integrate a decent build tool like Jam 
> (http://www.perforce.com/jam/jam.html) into Ruby directly so that 
> 
> (a) you don't need one of the myriad versions of make(1) on your machine to 
> build an extension.
> 
> (b) extension developers can just specify their extensions in terms of the 
> libraries and source files involved and let Jam/Ruby take care of the build.
> 
> (c) You don't need your makefile generator to dance around the differences in 
> the make versions.

Why not?  One reason is simplicity.  Simplicity and consistency is one
of the reasons ruby is so cool.  Shoving jam or make functionality
into it would be a mistake.  (Or cdplay functionality for that
matter!)

Also, I use GNU make and autoconf heavily and like them.  Like most
UN*X developers, I have both of them installed and don't feel the need
for an alternative, jam specifically, which I don't have installed.

I am a ruby newbie too, and besides being blown away by how great a
language it is, I'm also impressed by the internal consistency and the
lack of apparent feature bloat.  Feature bloat is no fun.

-- 
--Ed Cashin                     integrit file-verification system:
  ecashin@terry.uga.edu         http://integrit.sourceforge.net/

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