Re: [PATCH] Project out of sources compilation

[Ergus]

Hi Eli:

I won't come into this discussion but:

My basic concept of OOSC (probably mistaken) is that the sources of the
project are those required to reproduce a program, because otherwise it
is not possible or are too difficult/expensive to reproduce.

If I change project.el, then project.elc is not valid anymore and needs
to be regenerated... so, project.el is the source and the elc is a
target (not necessarily a final one)

In the same line, when we do out of sources compilation it may be
possible to remove the `build` directory and have the project sources
exactly as downloaded from sources. Without any other clean
needed...

Also in same line, for example, when using GIT_NAMESPACE the project.el
will change with the namespace, but the elc won't (as not tracked by
git), so GIT_NAMESPACE becomes inconsistent and requires a regeneration
of .elc, so, not a source, but a target

Finally when executing from build1 it may be possible to access the
version of project.elc used when the project was compiled in that
directory... independently of if I changed project.el latter and
compiled in build2. Latter actions in source + compilation in build2
should not affect the consistency of build1.



On Wed, Apr 03, 2024 at 10:08:16PM +0300, Konstantin Kharlamov wrote:
> On Wed, 2024-04-03 at 21:22 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > From: Konstantin Kharlamov <Hi-Angel@yandex.ru>
> > > Cc: rms@gnu.org, spacibba@aol.com, dmitry@gutov.dev,
> > > emacs-devel@gnu.org
> > > Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2024 20:27:09 +0300
> > >
> > > I hope now you understand why I'm saying Emacs doesn't fully
> > > support it 😊
> >
> > I still think you are mistaken.  What you call "out of tree build" is
> > not what is generally meant by that.
>
> Okay, what do you consider meant by that?
>
> > Bootstrapping a repository
> > invariably causes some "build artifacts" to be deposed in the source
> > tree
>
> Sure, that's unfortunately how autotools work.  On the upside though,
> it is rare for these files to cause problems.  Which can't be said
> about .elc ones.
>
> > , and the more the project makes a point of not having generated
> > files in the repository, the more artifacts are needed in the source
> > tree before you can start building out of tree.  
>
> Citation needed 😄  You asked me previously for examples of projects
> that do not generate any files in the tree, I provided you with that 😊
> I can certainly assure you that you don't necessarily have to generate
> files "in tree".  I worked with many different projects and distinct
> build systems, so I have a lot of experience in that regard.  Do you
> have in mind some specific case that you see a problem with?
>
> > And that is
> > perfectly okay, nothing wrong about that.
>
> There are problems with generating code in tree, some of which I did
> show to you previously.  Unless I misunderstand what you mean by that.