Re: Could automake-generated Makefiles required GNU make? (was: Re: [gnu-prog-discuss] portability)

[Reuben Thomas]

On 22 November 2011 20:48, Bob Friesenhahn <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> It would be quite useful for a FSF project to be spun-up to create an
> embeddable/small language interpreter and standard library which is capable
> of efficiently implementing complex make-like functionality ('automake') as
> well as providing functional replacements for any necessary string
> processing currently provided by 'sed', 'awk', and 'printf'.  The sole
> function of the interpreter would be to provide the framework for building
> other software.  This intepreter could form the basis for the new automake
> build tool.

Or you could use Lua (www.lua.org) and give up the "GNU-copyrighted"
bit. Several projects (e.g. [1][2]) to produce customizable build
systems have already been written in Lua, so it seems to be suitable.
It's mature, small, fast and easily understood by users wanting to
customize a program based on it at any level, as the syntax is
Pascal-like and, being originally designed as a data description
language, configuration files (and makefiles) are conveniently
expressed directly in the language. Its core is pure ANSI C89 and also
pure C++ (it's written in the subset), so it'll build easily anywhere.
It's free software (MIT license). If in doubt, ship the Lua source
with the tool you're writing in it.

[1] http://jan.kneschke.de/projects/how-to-write-a-good-build-system/
[2] http://primemover.sourceforge.net/

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