[Groff] Re: MSVC Port

[Jeff Conrad]

Keith Marshall wrote:

> If going to this length, should you not also aim to create a makefile which 
> is compatible with Microsoft's own 'nmake' tool?

Ostensibly, this makes a great deal of sense, but practically, it depends
on the effort entailed.  I've never used nmake, so I can't offer much in
the way of an estimate.  However, if difficulties using MKS make, which is
(with one or two notable exceptions, POSIX compliant), are any reference,
the effort could be considerable.

> If you retain the dependency on GNU make, why not also retain a requirement
> for a framework capable of running the configure script?

The configure script is VERY close to running out of the box in the MKS
environment (and presumably anything reasonably similar).  With a few
relatively simple changes, it should run without any modifications.  Nearly
all of the problems I had in the build of groff 1.19.1 arose from failure
to deal with simple OS differences (e.g., the 'exe' extension on
executables). The difference between this build and building groff 1.11 in
1999 is astonishing.

Perhaps there could be a minimal collection of *nixy utilities that are
required, and the required utilities could be stated in the release notes.

Jeff Conrad