RE: jgc's rules for asking questions (was Re: too simple of a problem)

[PATTON, BILLY \(SBCSI\)]

Ok, 
  Consider my hand slapped :(

> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden 
> [mailto:address@hidden On Behalf 
> Of John Graham-Cumming
> Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 10:53 AM
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: jgc's rules for asking questions (was Re: too simple 
> of a problem)
> 
> 
> Paul D. Smith wrote:
> > Also, I would strongly urge you to lay off the eval stuff 
> unless it's
> > REALLY necessary.  People wrote lots of very complex 
> makefiles for many,
> > many years without eval.  Eval is very powerful but it 
> gives a lot of
> > added complexity to a makefile and causes it to be very difficult to
> > read (plus it takes more computing power to parse your makefiles).
> 
> Can I just add a 'hear, hear', here?
> 
> One of the things I don't like about the "Managing Projects with GNU 
> Make" book is that the author _loves_ $(eval) and uses it all 
> the time.
> 
> $(eval) is really cool, but it's also mostly unnecessary.  And if you 
> use $(eval) you've excluded anyone who uses GNU Make 3.79.1 or below 
> (and there are lots of them out there).
> 
> While I'm talking generalities... lately this list has had a lot of 
> questions that involve people not explaining themselves 
> clearly or just 
> dumping a massive Makefile and asking "Why doesn't this work?".
> 
> If I might be so bold as to complement Paul Rules for Makefiles with 
> jgc's rules for asking questions:
> 
> 1. Describe clearly the desired outcome
> 2. Describe clearly the effect you are observing
> 3. Make sure that #1 != #2
> 4. Provide the smallest possible example that illustrates the 
> divergence 
> between #1 and #2.
> 
> John.
> -- 
> John Graham-Cumming
> address@hidden
> 
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