Tony Smith <tony / smee.org> writes:

> On Thursday 05 July 2001 15:24, Ed L Cashin wrote:
> > Tony Smith <tony / smee.org> writes:
....
> > > Why not integrate a decent build tool like Jam
> > > (http://www.perforce.com/jam/jam.html) into Ruby directly so that
....
> > Why not?  One reason is simplicity.  Simplicity and consistency is one
> > of the reasons ruby is so cool.  Shoving jam or make functionality
> > into it would be a mistake.  (Or cdplay functionality for that
> > matter!)
> 
> Actually I've given this quite a bit more thought and I don't see any reason 
> why this functionality couldn't simply be an extension in its own right. Then 
> you could simply have an 'extconf.rb' file which invokes the jam extension 
> and falls back on 'mkmf' if jam is not available. 
> 
> I think that addresses your concerns - no?

You mean if someone who likes jam writes extensions, they can supply
ruby code for the build that will invoke jam preferentially or fall
back to make?

Yes, that would certainly address my concerns, since my concerns were
about forcing jam's functionality into ruby itself.

-- 
--Ed Cashin                     integrit file-verification system:
  ecashin / terry.uga.edu         http://integrit.sourceforge.net/

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