Re: Common Configuration Settings

[Georg Bauhaus <rm.dash-bauhaus@futureapps.de>]

christoph.grein@eurocopter.com schrieb:

>> Once a few basic rules are there, it should be easy to
>>
>> (a) transform the rules into compiler specific syntax
>>
>> (b) have rule transformation use host OS conventions
>>
>> (c) allow for compiler specific additions
>>
>> We would not have to learn yet another ad hoc language.
> 
> Aha, wouldn't we need some language for this? Python, Perl, Ruby, ...

No no no...!  Common configuration language just needs a simple
stupid abstract CFG based on existing language.

GNAT project files, or AdaMagic's ADA.LIB and UNIT.MAP are
heading in this direction.  There is overlap in what the
GNAT files and AdaMagic files contain, such as paths.
It is at this overlap of settings where I would start defining
simple common configuration.

The current situation for portable Ada projects is that even
when configuration settings are the same, you still need
to specify and maintain them in differnt ways. Why?

Obviously, configuration is important, and is adressed
in any case, by each vendor.
In order to reduce the amount of duplicated configuration
information, a common core would need to be formalized.
Now that Ada.Directories and Ada.Environment_Variables
are part of the Ada language implementers have algorithms
ready.