[omniORB-dev] SCons build system revisited...

[Kevin Wooten]

I just wanted to give an update on the SCons build system that was
discussed a couple of months ago...I know some others were also
investigating so I hope they can provide some feedback.

I hate to say it but SCons seems to be well suited for single directory
projects, and imposes a lot of rules on building things the way it
wants. First I tried SConf + SCons. SConf is the "autoconf" for SCons
that was recently added. This was a complete failure, especially when
trying to add in a directory that may or may not be there (omniPython).
So then I tried Autoconf + SCons, the build directories seemed to be to
harshly regulated, especially since omniORB already has its own "style".
Also, SCons's install features seem to currently be severely lacking.
With all that said, I still like SCons a lot and I hope that in the
future these limitations (as I see them), can be removed, because it is
nice using one language across configuration, build and installation,
instead of two, three or more as is the case with autoconf & automake. I
would very much like to here others opinions on this!

As a side note, another project has forced me to (finally!) become very
familiar with autoconf & automake. I found it very easy to create builds
that are flexible and require a very small amount of input. If someone
feels the current build system needs repair, might I suggest cleaning up
the configure.ac, and replacing all the makefile handiwork with automake
makefiles. I am still very much willing to help. One suggestion I have
immediately is to put the __(platform)__ and __(architecture)__ defines
in the omni config.h.

Lastly, I would like to say, I don't like libtool. As I reread this it
seems I am making a case FOR auto* instead of against SCons; so I
thought I would throw that in. Although, my dislike may only come from a
lack of understanding why it does what it does.

Cheers,
kw
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