Please add :sh to the "problems and incompatibilities.

[Jeff Wiegley, Ph.D.]

I am suprised to find out that make is not as
backward compatible as I thought.

Especially since it doesn't support the *only*
method that make under Solaris uses to
incorporate command substitution.

This makefile works under Solaris but not
under any version of GNU make that I have tried...

---- BEGIN simple Makefile
GOOF:sh=/bin/date

test:
        @echo GOOF macro is ${GOOF}
---- END simple Makefile

I know that GNUmake supports command substition
using $(shell /bin/date) but why not also
support the :sh syntax?

This seems like a pretty big hole since every
makefile written on a Solaris platform that uses
any shell output will contain :sh. Seems like
a pretty big incompatibility to me. What's the
deal here?

- Jeff Wiegley, Ph.D.