Re: DOCS: include a sample "Makefile"?

[Werner LEMBERG]

> I changed the ` backticks to the $() construct on recommendations
> from one of my scripting books, which alleges that backticks are
> old-fashioned.

BTW, you might read the `autoconf' documentation which has a few,
quite long chapters on writing portable make and shell scripts.

  http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/

> I really have no idea, but all of my scripts are done with the $()
> construct.  Of course in the makefile it has to become $$(foo).

According to the abovementioned documentation, the shell construct
`$(...)' is not supported everywhere; in particular, recent Solaris
and IRIX versions of `sh' don't have it.

> I doubt we'll ever come up with something everyone likes.  I'm
> learning a lot, though, so I don't mind all the conflicting
> suggestions. :)

It has nothing to do with `everybody likes it' or not.  I think the
main goal is to develop something which works everywhere.  If we
assume `GNU make' and `bash', it's far easier to write clean scripts.
If we assume best portability, we have to circumvent a lot of
problems...


    Werner