Re: 2.2.0 released

[Steven Knight]

As Rajesh mentioned, 2.2.0 has been released for consumption.

As just discussed on the list, this notably contains Gary Oberbrunner's
"[perl]" patch, with fixes to the namespace manipulation to make "[perl]"
work more intuitively than it did under older version of Cons.

Other fixes of likely interest to fellow Conspirators include:

    --  The Digest::MD5 module is now used in preference to MD5,
        when available.

    --  Path names have been rationalized in a few places, some
        substantive (Objects) and some cosmetic.

    --  The -t option works a little better (previously discussed on
        the list) and prints a message about its internal "chdir" to
        the top-level directory.

   --   QuickScan, Depends, and SourcePath can now all process array
        refs.  QuickScan now uses ';' as its PATH separator on Windows NT.

Plus additional fixes.  Full CHANGES entries for 2.2.0 are appended
below.

        --SK



Cons 2.2.0
**********

- Use the Digest::MD5 module in preference to the now-deprecated MD5
  module.  Use MD5 if Digest::MD5 isn't available.

- Fix the Objects method to return meaningful path names even if the
  object isn't underneath the Conscript directory:  a top-relative
  path name if it's underneath the Construct directory, an
  absolute path name otherwise.

- Fix documentation:  CCOM should be CCCOM. Remove POD directives
  that were showing up in a verbatim paragraph.  The verbatim
  %[-%] example didn't work intuitively.  Change misleading use
  of $ENV for an environment name, which doesn't work because it's
  special to Perl.

- Missed some WIN32-specific -w warnings; now fixed.

- File name fixes:  Added canonicalization so dir//file and dir/file
  refer to the same file.  Simplified lookups in the root
  directory to avoid reporting /bin/cat as //bin/cat.

- Fix a bug that wouldn't allow SUFOBJ to have more than one dot
  (that is, no object files with names like .arch.o).

- Die with an appropriate message when someone tries to Export ENV or any
  other special Perl variable that can only exist in the main:: package.
  (Bug reported by Johan Holmberg and Eric Brown.)

- Rework Conscript variable namespace maintenance to allow external
  packages to be used.  Remove variable names from the script:: namespace
  instead of undef'ing their values.  Restore names whenever we execute
  perl code instead of a shell command.
  (Based on work by Johan Holmberg.)

- When using the -t option, change how the top is located to avoid
  calling dir::init() too early.  This was causing Cons to use
  full path names for files and causing needless recompiles when
  jumping back and forth between using -t and not.
  (Based on a mailing-list patch by Wayne Scott.)

- When using the -t option, emulate make by printing a "cons: Entering
  directory `xxx'" message when we chdir to the Construct directory,
  to allow the emacs compile feature to keep track of where files with
  build errors really are.
  (Based on a mailing-list patch by Wayne Scott.)

- Allow the Depends method to take an array ref of targets to specify
  multiple target dependencies at once.
  (Bug reported by Zachary Deretsky.)

- The QuickScan method's PATH was hard-coded to use ':' as the separator.
  Fix to use ';' on Windows NT, or to use an array ref of directories.
  (Bug reported by Zachary Deretsky.)

- Fix the SourcePath method so it can process and return an array.

Contributions from Gary Oberbrunner <address@hidden>

- Support executing perl code instead of shell commands to build a target.