Re: Bug#218614: Branden, please apply attached patch (Was Re: Driver SDK.)

[Andreas Metzler <ametzler@logic.univie.ac.at>]

Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 02, 2003 at 01:14:43PM +0100, Sven Luther wrote:
>> On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 04:23:10PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
>> > On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 05:11:26PM +0100, Sven Luther wrote:
[...] 
>> > No, I don't have a DONT_BUILD_SERVER option.  As I've explained on this
>> > list before, the variables are called NOT_BUILDING_X_SERVER and
>> > NOT_BUILDING_XF86_SERVER, and they are *descriptive*, not
>> > *prescriptive*.
>> 
>> Come on, i was writing this mail without the sources before my eyes, but
>> i understand you perfectly understood what i meant, so there is no need
>> for bickering about it.
> 
> You don't seem to understand what I mean by "descriptive" versus
> "prescriptive".
[...]

For the sake of perhaps shortening the discussion I will insert a
description, as I understand it.

* prescriptive
  a variable you set manually before starting to build to change the way
  the build runs. A nice example is DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS.

* descriptive
  The variable is not supposed to be set manually, instead they are set
  by the rules, e.g. "NOT_DOING_BLAH" reflects the fact that the
  build does not do BLAH, not the other way round, setting
  "NOT_DOING_BLAH" by hand won't influence whether BLAH is executed.

             cu andreas