Re: [Axiom-developer] [build-improvements] Requests for discussion

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

Ralf Hemmecke <address@hidden> writes:

| > | If I understand the question, you are asking how we can have only
| > literate | program files in Axiom at the get go and still not depend
| > on noweb.  The | simple answer is, we can't. Actually, we can if we
| > don't insist that literate files must be
| > pamphlet files or we must use noweb :-)
| 
| Well, isn't it much simpler? We are speaking here about the generation
| of code, so we mean notangle.

We're speaking of the bootstrapping process.  We need to start
from somewhere.  I believe notangle is not a wrong starting point.

But as I said, I implemented the majority's view.  I just disagree
with it.  My disagreement does nto change what end user will have to
type to install Axiom, when the project is completed.

| If for the bootstrapping file configure.ac.pamplet (that should be
| enough?) we restrict to just several code chunks of the form
| 
| <<*>>=
| code here
| @
| ...
| <<*>>=
| other code
| @
| 
| All these <<*>> chunks are linearly concatenated by notangle to give
| the final output.

Yes, that is what I implemented in configure.ac.pamphlet.

| For that simple task, I am sure that it is not too
| difficult to write a sed or awk script. 

If you have that script, I'll drop my objection -- because it means
our bootstrapping dependency is much weaker, i.e. only traditional
tools. 

| And the initial dependency on noweb would be gone. 

Exactly.

| Any sed/awk-programmers out there? Ehm, but then it might depend on
| awk...

Awk is traditional enough.

| what programs are usually assumed to exist 
| before I run ./configure?

That is the next round of patches I'll send.  Currently, there are
lots of unspoken dependencies deeply hidden in the makefiles.

| Windows/Un*x-like/MacOS systems are quite differnt.

Oh yeah, but I don't worry too much for the MacOS system as the
Unix-like enough.

| I am not sure whether also the Makefile.am.pamphlet files could/should
| be written in such a linear way. But all the non-pamphlet world can
| handle just Makefile.am and that is linear. So where would a pamphlet
| format impose some dependency on noweb for the configure process?

Makefile.am does not need to be linear.  In fact, Makefile.am is
sufficiently high-level enough that if and when we get there, we will
see that Tim already did the job.  We just need to re-structure
Makefile.pamphlet first.  You won't have to write Makefile.am,
because you will write Makefile.pamphlet (should they be renamed to 
Makefile.am.pamphlet? I don't know).  Then you get Makefile.am out of
it by build-setup.sh.  Once the system is in place, I do expect very
little modifications of makefiles; I suspect that 95% contribution
will be about algebra codes, 2% about the compiler...  So, the current
project is not a big deal.

-- Gaby