-pgmc/a/l default options, other ideas

[Peter Tanski]

On Jan 4, 2007, at 4:53 AM, Simon Marlow wrote:
> Peter Tanski wrote:
>> For GHC-default includes and link-libraries, GHC  might map the  
>> include-opt or link-opt for the -pgm over them with  additional  
>> options, such as mapping str1 or str2 from -opt_dlink str1  and - 
>> opt_dincl str2 over the defaults.  The order of the options  might  
>> be preserved by maintaining the order of the options used in  the  
>> command line.
>
> I don't really mind whether we allow a replacement for the string "- 
> I" to be specified by an option such as -opt-dinc, or whether we  
> simply build into GHC multiple "flavours" of the tools and have an  
> option to select which one is being used.  For example, we might have
>
>   -ccflavour gcc
>   -ccflavour cl
>
> to select a different command-line syntax when GHC invokes the C  
> compiler.  If the syntaxes are very different, eg. requiring  
> different ordering of options, then this method is to be  
> preferred.  On the other hand, if the differences are minor (just  
> renaming options) then the first method might be better.

For GCC and CL, the differences can be fairly major (although the  
fact that CL recognises command line options with a '-' or a '/' is  
very convenient).  -ccflavour is a great idea.

>> It might be possible, even preferable, to keep the program names  
>> and  default options from Config.hs by storing them in a  
>> configuration  file as "Simon" suggested storing them in  
>> package.conf in a comment- note in SysTools.hs.  For Win-GHC (as I  
>> am calling Windows-native  GHC), it would probably be more  
>> "standard" to store them in the  Registry; for other systems they  
>> might be stored in package.conf or a  specialised initialisation  
>> file.
>
> The registry is a really bad place to keep configuration  
> information - it runs into trouble when you want to have multiple  
> installations.   A configuration file in a known place relative to  
> the binary is much better, which is what the package.conf file is.

There are various ways to distinguish things in the Registry but that  
involves yet more work and package.conf is also much easier for  
making small, manual adjustments.  So, package.conf it is; cc-flavour/ 
cc-flavor (accept both spellings) should be added to data BuildInfo  
in Distribution.PackageDescription.

The basic setup for Win-GHC shouldn't take too long to complete.  I  
was close to done before Christmas, although I still don't know  
whether to scrap MkDLL or modify it to use link.exe and .def files as  
Esa suggested.  The story is in the source code, somewhere.

Cheers,
Pete