Re: perl5's use of $(CCCMD)

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004, Nicholas Clark wrote:

> Why does the perl Makefile use $(CCCMD) both for linking and for compiling?

The short mostly-correct answer is "Because in 1994 I didn't know any
better."

> Is there any reason not to split out a linker command, for the rules that
> generate miniperl and perl from object files?

In parrot, I submitted a patch a long time ago to try to cleanly separate
three functions:

     Compiler -- tool used to turn .c files into object files.
     (Usually cc or cl, or something like that.)

     Linker -- tool used to link object files (plus libraries) into
     an executable.  It is usually $cc on Unix-ish systems.
     VMS and Win32 might use "Link".

     $ld:  Tool used to build dynamically loadable libraries.  Often
     $cc on Unix-ish systems, but 'ld' on some systems.

Perl's Configure only gives you two variables ($cc and $ld) for those
three functions.  The mapping is done via hints files and lots of
special case code sprinkled all over the place.

There's no reason Configure couldn't introduce a new variable, $link,
default it to $cc nearly everywhere, and use it in Makefile.SH.

-- 
    Andy Dougherty		[email protected]