Build system (was Re: Future of KDE Development)

[Harri Porten]

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005, Stephan Kulow wrote:

> I think, we can argue pro and contra high level language in Makefiles for
> quite some time without going anywhere. Perhaps it would help if you outline
> what problems you have exactly with the automake syntax. Perhaps we can
> lift the syntax a bit without giving all power away.

One challenge not so visible yet: portability of commands. We'll have to
solve the task of accomplishing rules like

  parser:
	cd $(srcdir) && \
	perl scripts/makeattrs && \
	bash scripts/maketags && \
	bash scripts/makeprop

in a cross-platform manner. Using conditionals might be one solution but
this would result in maintenance nightmare. A solution for being able to
express common tasks like copying of files and execution of commands in a
platform neutral manner would be advisable IMO.

Harri.