Re: Octave-Forge: requirement for a maintainer Makefile for release

[Carnë Draug]

On 20 November 2016 at 13:03, Oliver Heimlich <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 13.11.2016 23:34, Carnë Draug wrote:
>> On 13 November 2016 at 21:36, Philip Nienhuis <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> Not that I am opposed to a makefile with a dist (+ html) target; it'll help
>>> to run autoconf/bootstrap etc (I remember to have forgotten that myself
>>> before uploading a package) and -most of all- automates a lot of work.
>>>
>>
>> Good.  Let's wait a few more days to see if anyone opposes.
>>
>> Carnë
>>
>
> “Any sufficiently advanced Makefile is indistinguishable from magic.”
>
> I have never written Makefiles before creating an Octave package.  It is
> one of many things which I have learned from developing in the Octave
> ecosystem.  I can clearly remember the time before that, when Makefiles
> have been something that I tried to evade because of their syntax and
> how they work, which I didn't understand at that time.
>
> Looking back, Makefiles are a very simple tool. But you have to practice
> a little bit before they lose scariness. :-)
>
> So, if Makefiles become a requirement, please make sure that we offer as
> much support as possible to new developers, such that this is not seen
> as a burden.
>
> * List a Makefile template in the wiki or at
>   http://octave.sourceforge.net/developers.html

I have uploaded a template with several comments [1] which I hope it
explains most of the magic.  Can you take a look and maybe expand [2]
any magic that was not obvious to you at the start?

> * Offer help to adopt the Makefile to someone's project
>   via maintainers mailing list.

Of course.  There's also many other people in the mailing list that can
help with Makefiles but I have been helping shape Makefiles in packages.

Carnë

[1] http://octave.sourceforge.net/templates/Makefile
[2] 
http://hg.code.sf.net/p/octave/project-web/file/d2dd7f6a47d6/htdocs/templates/Makefile