Re: [Gcl-devel] Install failure

[Mike Thomas]

Hi Camm.

> 1) We need to prepend, instead of overwrite, the environment variable
>    C_INCLUDE_PATH in the shell script wrapper 'gcl'.

The problem is the colon path separator - Windows uses a semi-colon.  Might
be time for a shell script (see suggestion below).

> 2) The ${} or $() syntax specifies make variables, but variables set
>    in the *commands* section of a makefile rule are *shell*
>    environment variables.  These won't appear in subsequent nested
>    invocations of make, or even in the current invocation, but rather
>    just on the command line in which they are defined.  Each line
>    executes in its own subshell.
> 3) For clarity, I'd like to propose a mini-standardization -- $(foo) for
>    make variables, $$foo for shell variables.  ${} and $${} are too
>    easy to confuse.

In the slightly longer term (I've been sorely tempted over the past two
weeks) I think that the best place for those makefile commands which in turn
generate shell commands (eg the lines which generate "bin/gcl*") and paths
would be in utility shell scripts.  They will then be easier to maintain and
add platform specifics to.  It's a similar syntactic editing/writability
problem to the CLINES approach to foreign code inclusion in GCL.

> 4) Needless to say, the makefile is an ugly disaster, and hopefully
>    we'll find time to clean it up soon.

Agreed.

Cheers

Mike Thomas.