writing (Gnu)MAKE in Python

[David A. Frantz]

In article <NEBBIOGBDMDPEANLFKGHCEPACDAA.jschmitt at vmlabs.com>, "John
Schmitt" <jschmitt at vmlabs.com> wrote:

> Hi.
> 
> I'd love to take the diversion of writing Make using Python.  The things
> that are keeping me from doing this are, in order:
> 
> - I'm not completely convinced that doing this is a good thing
> - my employer has not asked me to, and I doubt they would see the value
> in it that I do
> - Make is big and complicated and reproducing all the functionality that
> we need (complete with quirks and bugs) would be time-consuming
> - if I couldn't demonstrate its value immediately the work would not be
> appreciated, especially since we have many other projects worthy of my
> time
> 
> The benefits as I see them (in no order):
> 
> - provide a Make that really, really works
> - Make would work the same everywhere!  wouldn't that be great?!
> - not only would Make work the same way everywhere, it would take care
> of foreslash and backslash differences too!
> - Make bugs would be easier to fix
> - new features would be much easier to add
> - if I got it into our tool set, just maybe, Python will be accepted as
> a
> (preferred?:-) development tool
> - if I did it, it would be my opportunity to learn Python and to learn
> Make fairly well
> - did I mention portability?
> 
> In a smaller way, I would like to have Bash, sed, and grep as Python
> programs rather than compiled C.
> 
> Anyone volunteering? :-)
> 
> John
> 
> 
Hi John;

You really don't want to rewrite make in Python what you should do is
write a make replacement in  Python.    This may sound strange at first
but do consider how old the "make" concept is.

Further more you are not the only one considering this idea.     There are
some people tryng to oerganize and develope a whole set of programming
tools around Python.     Of ocurse I forgot the URL.    But if you go to
"codesourcery" for some reason I think that web site will lead you in the
right direction.    Someone  also mentioned ANT which I have no experience
with but have heard good things about.

My point is why not implement new technology that will fully use the
facilities that Python offers.    Rewriting make would in Python would
just squander your programming talent.    This would especially be the
case if you try to copy it quirk for quirk function for function.     


Thanks dave