Re: Autotools build system

On Sunday 21 June 2009, Kevin Bowling wrote:
> What do you mean by "compiled in"?  To me that means
> statically compiled and then linked into the 'gnucap' binary
> so the user doesn't need to worry about shared objects. 
> Otherwise, just continue to let the user edit a text file of
> default load commands for shared objects.

The way it is now .. a set of plugins, enough to make a useful 
program in a single executable are compiled in.

> Loading an entire plugin directory makes a lot of sense.
> Libtool(libltdl) should do exactly what we need (hide the
> complexity of different dynamic loading mechanisms and
> library types -- crossplatform).

I was thinking of having a custom extension for this, so the 
plugin extension is consistent across platforms.

> But dynamically running a Makefile?  For what purpose?  Let
> us assume the average user's machine, especially Windows,
> doesn't have gmake let alone a C compiler.

You will need a C++ compiler at run time for full functionality.  
I don't see any other way.

Two reasons ..

1. so the user can load modules provided as source.

2. just-in-time compilation of behavioral expressions.


> > I have no problem with libtool.
>
> Good :-).

libtool does not imply autoconf.