From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,38159b1b5557a2e7 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2004-01-27 03:09:46 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!fu-berlin.de!cs.tu-berlin.de!uni-duisburg.de!not-for-mail From: Georg Bauhaus Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Standard Ada Preprocessor Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 11:09:45 +0000 (UTC) Organization: GMUGHDU Message-ID: References: <100upo7ln5e3k59@corp.supernews.com> <400FC8E8.2040100@noplace.com> <_JSdna166JuxFo3dRVn-hg@comcast.com> <401115B7.5020205@noplace.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: l1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de X-Trace: a1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de 1075201785 27644 134.91.1.34 (27 Jan 2004 11:09:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.uni-duisburg.de NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 11:09:45 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: tin/1.5.8-20010221 ("Blue Water") (UNIX) (HP-UX/B.11.00 (9000/800)) Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:4894 Date: 2004-01-27T11:09:45+00:00 List-Id: Ole-Hjalmar Kristensen wrote: : One way to combat the combinatorial explosion of platforms * compiler : * library is to explicitly test for the features of the environment : you really need to know, not assume something because of a particular : platform/compiler. This is the approach typically used by projects : using the 'configure' tool. Only to some extent is this test possible with this approach. Some GNU software authors must frankly tell you that unless you use a know combination of compiler (i.e. gcc ;-) and OS (i.e., Unix or Wunix), "... non-default environments can expose bugs in the system header files, crippling compilation in _very_ non-obvious ways. Because of that, we define them only on well-tested architectures where we know they will work." (from wget config-post.h "1.9+cvs-dev") And promtly como --c --strict lets me translate the source, but without --remarks, it does not tell me that usleep is not defined. So for a double argument to usleep which has been manually range checked, the conversion to long is not done... The configure approach has always been a nightmare for me the moment I had to deviate from the assumptions that the configure script is known to verify. : I would really like to have some standard configuration tool which : could take such parameters as input and produce a version of the : system tailored to the environment in which it is to be compiled and : run. Yes. But do you think it will ever be produced by programmers (who like to creatively write programs)? Collegues tell me that CM is tedious, always the same, automatic, boring, wast of time, etc. etc., they want a DWIM procedure. And when I answer that configuration management, installation procedures, installation testing routines and so one are 50% of software development, I'm on my own. So the trick will be to turn CM into a programming problem, so programmers and mathematicians will be instrested in solving it. -- Georg