Re: HLA v1.93 is now available

On Apr 28, 10:06 pm, Charles Crayne <charles.cra...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In addition, the last time I suggested that make files would better
solve the problem of long command lines than having to set up
environment variables, your reaction was quite negative.

Yes, make files are not a substitute for providing a decent set of
environment variables for the assembler. Make files are great for
automating processes that you repeat over and over again. They are not
suitable for "one-off" processes. Environment variables are great for
applying a common set of options to *all* assemblies, even if they are
one-shot things.

So yes, I'm quite negative on your suggestion of makefiles as a "one
size fits all" approach to building software systems. Make files have
their uses. They're great for automating builds of projects like the
HLA standard library; they're not suitable for building arbitrary
products once or twice. OTOH, having environment variables set up so
that I don't have to type something like "-aZi -aZd" on every assembly
in order to get debugging information is quite convenient.

And getting back to the current subject at hand, the ability to use
wildcard operations during a build is actually better than make
operations in certain cases. For example, when building the HLA
standard library for a new release, I *always* do a clean first and
rebuild everything. In theory, this shouldn't be necessary, in
practice, it's just a good policy to follow and you're *sure* that
you're getting the latest of everything without worrying about whether
the dependencies in all the makefiles were programmed correctly. As it
turns out, compiling all the HLA files in a given directory with a
command like "HLA -c *.hla" is actually a bit faster than going
through the usual makefile dependency checking. That's not to say that
I wouldn't use a make file for this process, just that I'd have a
"release:" label and have it do "HLA -c *.hla" rather than go through
and build each object module independently.

Setting up makefiles for operations you repeat over and over again is
a good idea. Certainly one I promote. But makefiles, by themselves,
are not a replacement for a decent set of command-line option
capabilities nor are they a replacement for environment variable
options. These concepts are all quite complementary. Your suggestion
is something like "who needs all these different sized screwdrivers in
the tool box when a pair of vice grips could do the job?"
hLater,
Randy Hyde


.

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