Help with gmake.

[Brian Bruinewoud]

Maybe its just me, but I think the following would be really useful:

        LIB-NAMES = A B

        LIB-A-OBJS = a.o ma.o
        LIB-B-OBJS = b.o bl.o

        LIBS: $(patsubst %, lib%.a, $(LIB-NAMES))

        lib%.a: $(LIB-%-OBJS)

When I discovered that this didn't work, I tried various other ways to get
similar functionality, such as using $(foreach...) to generate the rules, etc.

None of them worked. Is there some way to get this functionality? 
That is, how do I write a generic file that can generate libraries given a list
of library names an appropriately named list of constituent objects.

My version of gnu make is:
        $ gmake --version
        GNU Make version 3.75, by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath.
        Copyright (C) 1988, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96
                Free Software Foundation, Inc.
        This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
        There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
        PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

        Report bugs to <address@hidden>.

Thanks,
Brian.