implementing emake's #pragma multi in GNU make?

[Jamie Cuesta]

http://blog.melski.net/2013/01/01/pragma-multi-and-rules-with-multiple-outputs-in-gnu-make/
 describes a (IMHO very significant, perhaps even "gaping") limitation of GNU 
make (and offers a (IMHO) clean/elegant solution to same).  

This limitation was a show-stopper for my (and my employer's) adoption of GNU 
make.  As a result, in 2009 I adapted an existing patch which, in short, causes 
GNU make to behave by default the same as emake with its '#pragma multi' in 
effect (see link above).

This patch has worked wonderfully for me and my employer since 2009 (on the 
Win32/MinGW platform), but since it is absolutely incompatible with legacy make 
usage, it will, by itself, _never_ be accepted "as is" into the official GNU 
make repo.  However emake has now set a precedent which, if adopted by GNU 
make, would allow the merging of this functionality into the mainstream of GNU 
make w/o breaking legacy usage.

I would be more than willing to offer my patch (or maybe there are better 
implementations?), but I have no idea how to implement the '#pragma multi' 
aspect which would cause make to switch at runtime between the behavior 
exhibited in this patch and the default make behavior.

Is anyone interested in pursuing this development?

My motivations:

a) moving this patch into the mainstream GNU make, reliving me of the (very 
minor) burden of moving it forward to new releases of GNU make.

b) per (a), removing the risk that mainstream GNU make changes might break this 
patch in ways that might be very difficult to recover from.

c) removing what I consider to be a limitation which prevents others from using 
GNU make.


Thanks for reading, Jamie