Re: Immediate and deferred expansion documentation rewording

[Martin Dorey]

> the value in the definition of a recursively

> expanded variable is considered to be a "construct", therefore it can

> also be regarded as a "deferred construct"?

Yes.  I think it's useful to consider:

nam = exp

... as a construct of at least two sections, because nam is immediately evaluated, while the evaluation of exp is deferred.

> how can that value "appear in an immediate context"?

It can't: that was my point in the last sentence of my previous post.  Given:

nam = exp

It's when $(nam) appears in an immediate context that exp gets evaluated.  exp needn't itself appear again.

---

From: Maris Razvan <address@hidden>
Sent: Tuesday, October 1, 2019 13:19
To: Martin Dorey <address@hidden>
Cc: address@hidden <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: Immediate and deferred expansion documentation rewording

 

***** EXTERNAL EMAIL *****

Thank you for your answer. I have some follow-up questions.

>
> >  I understand the following
>
> Apart from the word "cmake", that chimed with my understanding.
>
> > a completely different meaning than the one used in the previous sentences
>
> I think the meanings are consistent if "a section of a construct" is itself a "construct".

Does this mean that the value in the definition of a recursively
expanded variable is considered to be a "construct", therefore it can
also be regarded as a "deferred construct"?

>
> > however one situations
> > appertains only to "recursively expanded variables" and the other only
> > to "recipes"
>
> Right, but I don't see that this lack of precision makes the prose inaccurate.  I bet you could smith a couple of replacement sentences that I for one would find precise, accurate and clear.
>
> While you're there, it isn't the value of the recursively expanded variable that appears in an immediate context, but a reference to the name of the variable.
>

This issue is related to my previous question. If the "deferred
construct" in the definition of a recursively expanded variable is the
value (not the variable itself, as I presumed in my original
question), how can that value "appear in an immediate context"?