Matthew A. Nicholson wrote:
Scons will configure and build cross toolchains and you can make it
build native dependencies with what ever you want it to.
I think you're misunderstanding what I mean.
what I mean is that if I have a C++ file, and I'm on a linux host, and I
write down the name of the C++ file in a scons script, the default scons
rulebase is not going to do the following:
- download toolchain sources from gcc.gnu.org
- configure the toolchain for mingw cross
- build the tool chain and install it in a scratch directory
- download boost and popt from the net
- build them under the mingw cross
- build my C++ file under the mingw cross, linked against the
built popt and boost
- run windows under qemu, and execute any tests I have of the results
of course if I had more patience I could write scons rules to do that. I
could also write automake rules to do that, or shell scripts. but the
fact that I *could* write such rules doesn't make the rules exist. that
process is what we need a build volunteer to do, and scons won't, by
default, automate any of that for us. no tools currently will.
What do you mean by distcheck?
distcheck is a target in automake's default rulebase. it's a very useful
pre-distribution rule, which does the following:
- make a tarball of the proposed distribution
- unpack it, configure and build it in a separate directory
- run the tests and stop if they fail
- make clean and make sure that eliminates all unknown files
- report that the tarball is OK for posting to the net
distcheck catches lots of stupid pre-shipment bugs. missing files, bad
include paths, extra shipped junk. scons has no such rule. it has no
concepts of testsuites or packages. of course I could write these rules
for scons. but that's the way scons is: its default rulebase is a bit
skimpy compared to autoconf and automake. scons' chief virtues are not
the rules, but the design:
- multiple toolset support (like bjam)
- internal dependency scanners (like bjam)
- hash-identified product caching
- real programming language
these are fine virtues, and I think scons is a fine program. I would
like to use it. I am currently continuing with autotools because last
time I tried an scons conversion, I ran out of patience with all the
rules it didn't know, that I already had covered by autotools rules.
it's just a matter of sloth. I didn't want to write the rules myself.
-graydon