Re: I think binary-branch is almost ready for play time

[Alexandre Oliva]

On May 13, 2001, Bruce Korb <address@hidden> wrote:

> Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> Indeed, it does.  I'm close to being convinced.  The final test is
>> going to be this: I'd like to implement test-and-exit in terms of a
>> new macro, namely, test, that takes arguments such as the test to be
>> performed, the if clause and the else clause.

> OK.  Just so you know, if you pass a named argument "mumble"
> to macro "foo" and that macro invokes another named, "bar",
> the "bar" macro has access to "mumble" unless "foo" creates
> another definition context for it in its argument list for "bar".
> In other words, your new macro should not need to do this:

>    [= test-and-exit  test = (get "test")  ...  =]

> because it would be redundant.

Good.  But I had meant to write ``I'd like *you* to implement ...''
:-)

I'm not even sure I'd know how to start implementing one macro in
terms of another.  I recall your having stated this was impossible in
earlier versions of AutoGen; I'm very happy this is now possible.

>> I must confess that I dislike AutoGen's syntax, heavily loaded with [=
>> and =], but I'm sure it's just a matter of getting used to it.

> So, you don't like [+ and +] either? ;-)

Yep.  And I recall having disliked [ and ] when I started with
autoconf.  And I still haven't got over Pascal's `begin' and `end' :-)

> I use [= and =] a lot because they are close together and don't
> require holding the shift key.  :-)

Good point :-)

>> Named arguments in macro invocations are sometimes a nuisance,
>> but they can also be a plus.

> I find them convenient.  I always prefer typing to lack of clarity.
> It also makes the calling sequence extensible and flexible.
> I like that, too.

Yep.  I guess it's just a matter of my getting use to it.  I'm happy
you're giving me good reasons to learn more about AutoGen :-)

-- 
Alexandre Oliva   Enjoy Guarana', see http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
Red Hat GCC Developer                  address@hidden, redhat.com}
CS PhD student at IC-Unicamp        address@hidden, gnu.org}
Free Software Evangelist    *Please* write to mailing lists, not to me