Building a source multiple times

Hello CONS users,

I would like to get your opinion. We have developers who want to compile a 
source file multiple times using different preprocessor symbols in the 
same build. The objs are then linked into various executables. It's not 
what you think of as a variant build really because they might do this for 
test code or other purpose. Each developer may use a different symbol, 
since their code is not coupled with the other developers code. What I am 
trying to say is that you couldn't do a "test" variant, or some other 
thing. If we use variant builds we would have 20 different variant builds, 
and they are all used for the same product on the same platform. You can't 
organize it like debug and release, or windows and unix.

So the question is what do you think is the best way to solve this 
problem?

We are using Cons::Plus as well as some of our own code. The current plan 
is to use install to temporarily copy the file to a new place to trick 
Cons into not knowing it is the same file. My worry is that we confuse 
Cons so much with this stuff, that it becomes just as unreliable as what 
we are doing now (Dev Studio).

Finally, I am wondering why the need to compile a file more than once in 
the same variant build is not supported. My guess is that the original 
designers didn't consider this practice. By the way, I have argued 
extensively against this practice here, but to no avail.

Thanks for any insight

David Weidenkopf
Philips Ultrasound