NAME

Maker - Yet Another Make-like Program

DESCRIPTION

Why yet another make? I have never found a make program that I thought was easy enough to use. In fact, a year of two ago I wrote a make package similar to this but it turned out too hard to use and I ended up discarding it. Here are some features that make this maker unique:

Due to the adherence to object-oriented organization, multiple targets can easily be built in the same be-file in a natural and obvious manner.

Rules have two phases of execution. Once when they are added to the rule tree and once when they are executed. The complete power of perl is available at both times. Rules do not need to be written only in terms of pattern matching. This makes for more organic, intelligent behavior.

The reliance of the rule selection engine is kept to an absolute minimum. Be-files state exactly what to do in a direct procedural fashion. The full power of perl is available to factor out duplicate information.

TODO

A front-end needs to be designed to allow be-files to be very short and simple. I tend to think of the be-files as a target language for a front-end preprocessor. At least there should be a script to get people up and compiling quick.

Makefile.PL translator & front-end for be-files.

Generate dependencies with makedepend and grok them.

RCS/SCCS/ClearCase support.

Parallel builds on multiple hosts. (Should be easy.)

The documentation.

SYNOPSIS

AUTHOR

Joshua Pritikin, pritikin@mindspring.com

SEE ALSO

MakeMaker, /bin/make, gmake, nmake, imake, build, cook, plan9 make, clearmake, ParallelMake, etc..