Re: automake/conf

[Rick Riolo]

hi alex,
since these are going to be required, could you please
add then to the 
   ftp://ftp.santafe.edu/pub/swarm/needed-software/
directory?
Thanks!
 -r 


Rick Riolo                           address@hidden
Program for Study of Complex Systems (PSCS)
4477 Randall Lab                
University of Michigan         Ann Arbor MI 48109-1120
Phone: 734 763 3323                  Fax: 734 763 9267
http://www.pscs.umich.edu/PEOPLE/rlr-home.html

On 18 Jul 1998, Alex Lancaster wrote:

> Date: 18 Jul 1998 15:48:30 -0600
> From: Alex Lancaster <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: adding a library
> 
> >>>>> "ST" == Sven N Thommesen <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> ST> I'm trying to figure out what to do to add a library of my own to
> ST> the Swarm package. Now that we're using the configure 'magic',
> ST> it's a little more complicated than it was.
> 
> ST> I've found references to the distribution list of libraries in
> ST> these files: Makefile.appl.in (lines 17 and 47), configure.in
> ST> (line 150) and configure (lines 3007 and 3136). Can I just add my
> ST> own library (say, (lib)localstuff) to these places and be ok, or
> ST> is it more complicated than that?
> 
> ST> Would I need to put a 'Makefile.am' in src/localstuff, modelled on
> ST> one from another library?
> 
> ST> Might it make sense for the Swarm release to contain two empty
> ST> libraries (user-pre-lib and user-post-lib), searched before and
> ST> after the Swarm libraries respectively, so that users could just
> ST> add their own objects there?
> 
> Well it's funny you mentioned it, because I'm working on the
> automake/autoconf for Swarm libraries and applications right now.
> 
> The first thing I'd suggest is getting latest versions of automake and
> autoconf installed on your system and peruse the documentation to get
> the feel of how the two packages fit together.  In future all Swarm
> libraries and applications should be created with these packages, so
> that you can build truly portable libraries and applications.  It
> might seem like a bit of work to start with, but in the long run it
> makes for much simpler and more easily maintainable packages.  
> 
> We will also be building more smarts into Swarm itself to make this
> process mostly transparent to the user - so it should involve no more
> lines in a Makefile.am than the existing Makefiles (I will post an
> example Makefile.am and configure.in file for an application I'm
> developing in other mail, to give you an idea of how this might be
> done).
> 
> What I'm doing is creating a new file in the root of the Swarm
> directory called etc/config.swarm.  It is an extracted file contains
> all the current library paths and flags that Swarm fings at
> install-time.  The difference from the Makefile.appl is that this file
> is *not* included in the new Makefile.am (which should replace the
> plain Makefile) but contains variables that will be extracted into it.
> 
> Mostly I'm working on getting applications working with automake so
> far, and I'm just about to start the library stuff, but if you want we
> can both work on the library framework as well.  If there are more
> people clamouring for it - the more quickly it will happen.
> 
> If you're creating a new library, I suggest that it should have it's
> own configure script and all applications that reference it should
> also have a pointer to this library (using a `--with-yourlibname' flag
> at configure time).  The reason for this is that you want to be able
> to maintain a sharp distinction between the base Swarm installation
> and any new libraries you add.  It also means that you will have
> portable packages that others can use.  
> 
> One of the things I've been trying to do as a library programmer is to
> facilitate the sharing and interoperability of parts of Swarm and
> building truly robust and portable libraries.  The existing
> Makefile.{appl,lib} framework is woefully inadequate for doing that -
> and will propbably be maintained for a while for back-compatibility,
> but will ultimately have to be superseded. The auto{make,conf}
> framework shouls help us to do that properly.
> 
> Alex
> 
> -- 
>   Alex Lancaster         |   e-mail: address@hidden
>   Swarm Developer        |      web: http://www.santafe.edu/~alex
>   Santa Fe Institute     |      tel: +1-(505) 984-8800 (ext 242)
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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