Have Win DMD use gmake instead of a separate DMMake makefile?

[H. S. Teoh]

On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 04:18:12PM -0700, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 8/12/2013 3:48 PM, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> >Objectively speaking, though, this is no different from being
> >required to install make in order to compile dmd. You still have to
> >go out of the way to install a 3rd party program before you can build
> >dmd. The only difference is that make tends to be preinstalled in
> >more systems than python (though nowadays most Linux distros come
> >with python by default, so this factor is becoming much less out of
> >place than you're suggesting).
> 
> 1. Python is not preinstalled on Windows. So then the question is,
> which Python should the user install? What happens if the user
> doesn't like that version? What if it conflicts with his other
> Python he's got installed? What if the Python version is different?
> What if Python releases an upgrade, and our build system needs to be
> adjusted to account for that?
> 
> 2. Make comes with g++. g++ is used to build dmd, so if g++ is
> installed, so is make.
> 
> 3. Make doesn't come preinstalled on Windows. But we have a make we
> can throw in the bin directory without issues. It's only 50K. Nobody
> goes out of their way - it's there on the same path as dmd. It's
> always the right version of make to use with our makefiles. We're
> not going to get into the Python distribution business.

But if we bundle a D-based build tool in the bin directory...


> 4. Having Python as a prerequisite for using D just paints the wrong image for D.

That I agree with. :)


> 5. Do we really want D to be restricted to only platforms that have
> the latest Python up on them?

I think that's a bit of hyperbole. It's the same as saying "do we want D
to be restricted to only platforms that have g++/make installed?"

This is where a D-based build tool comes in. We ship the prebuilt build
tool, then that can be used to build dmd (which can in turn be used to
build newer versions of the build tool). That way we are freed from
dependence on anything else, esp. once dmd is fully ported over to D.


> So no, I do NOT at all regard the issue of requiring Python to be
> remotely equivalent to requiring Make.
> 
> We did have a problem on FreeBSD because the default make on it
> would not work with posix.mak. gmake had to be explicitly installed.
> The only saving grace there is that very few people use FreeBSD, and
> those that do, tend to be pretty handy with installing gmake.

This is the plague of makefiles. They *almost* always work, but when
they don't, it's a mess.

If we have a D build tool that we ship with the dmd sources, then we
will have (1) a superior build system to make, (2) no external
dependence on gmake / python / whatever else. Since we're aiming for dmd
to be itself written in D, we might as well just self-host the build
system too. And this tool can be used to build other D programs in
general, not just dmd / druntime / phobos.


T

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