Re: Package which uses jam (instead make)
On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 19:55:00 -0500, John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> said:
> On Sat, Oct 18, 2003 at 04:39:54PM -0500, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>> > The "must" in the new meaning is an accidental byproduct of
>> > conversion to the new language.
>>
>> Accidental or not, it has been an established part of the
>> infrastructure for the whole life of ./debian/rules convention; and
>> ought not to be easy ro change.
> You know, this philosophy goes against everything that one normally
> sees on a *nix platform.
> On Debian, one would normally not care what language an executable
> is written in. I run programs that are written in shell, C, Python,
> Perl, or other languages, usually oblivious to what language they're
> written in. Sometimes they even change. As long as they accept the
> same input and produce the same output, the implementation details
> like that are irrelevant to me the user.
Quite so. As long as I can use it in the fashion I described,
it can be anything you want. So, if I include ./debian/rules in a
Makefile, since it is documented to be so, I don't care what language
it is written in.
> When packaging software for Debian, the user of debian/rules is the
> person building the package. The rules script is called like any
> other executable. The fact that it is written in make is
> irrelevant.
I tend to agree.
> The fact that you are using undocumented interfaces to
Bzzzt. It is documented to be a Makefile. That _is_ the
interface definition.
> debian/rules on occasion is also irrelevant. If you do not stick to
> the documented interfaces, you lose the ability in my eyes to
> express outrage when the interfaces you use change.
The documented interface says it is a Makefile. I treat it as
a Makefile; anything you do that allows me to treat it as a Makefile,
like the documented interface definition says, is fine.
manoj
--
Once, there was NO fun ... This was before MENU planning, FASHION
statements or NAUTILUS equipment ... Then, in 1985 ... FUN was
completely encoded in this tiny MICROCHIP ... It contain 14,768
vaguely amusing SIT-COM pilots!! We had to wait FOUR BILLION years
but we finally got JERRY LEWIS, MTV and a large selection of
creme-filled snack cakes!
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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