Re: progmodes/project.el and search paths

[Stephen Leake]

David Engster <address@hidden> writes:

> From what I see in project.el, this is an API for defining a set of
> directories. I'm not saying that Emacs does not need such an API, but I
> would not call this a "project API". What about things like setting up
> toolchains (compiler, linker, debugger), 

Ada mode uses AdaCore gprbuild, which uses a project file that defines
all that stuff. No help from Emacs needed. And so far, the only thing
Emacs needs from the project file is the source path, for
compilation-source-path.

> configurations (debug/release), support for external build systems,

To support a build system, you provide a project backend.

I assume I could provide an EDE backend for gprbuild, and another for
gradle (for Android Java projects). 

> setting up environment variables and pre-processor symbols, 

No environment variables for Ada, Java only needs CLASSPATH, which is
set from the JDEE project file (so that could use an EDE feature?). No
preprocessor in Ada or Java.

> and so on? I mean, this is the bread and butter of projects in pretty
> much any IDE. 

I suspect there may be self-selection going on here; people/project
backends that need all of those features use EDE, and new project
backends get written.

But for people/projects that don't need all of those things, EDE seems
overwhelming.

So it seems like we are discussing refactoring EDE, and adding some
features it doesn't currently have.

-- 
-- Stephe