FW: darcs patch: Add extern flag to avoid multiple symbolerrorson Mac...

[Simon Marlow]

Ian Lynagh wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 09, 2008 at 04:15:15PM +0100, Simon Marlow wrote:
>> Claus Reinke wrote:
>>
>>> What is wrong with a proper 'make', cleaning, dependencies,
>>> and all, at least as an aim, if not yet in practice? Of course, you
>>> can move house every time your dirty plates fill your sink, so that
>>> you have an entirely clean house in which to start the week, but
>>> that isn't more than a workaround, not a solution.
>> I completely agree, and this is something I'd like to improve when we 
>> overhaul the build system.
> 
> I've been largely ignoring messages about perceived deficiencies in the
> current build system, given the consensus is to replace it anyway, but
> it seems to me that it has gotten better, not worse, in this respect.
> 
> Almost all generated files are now put in dist* directories, which makes
> them easy to clean; and even if you do stop using a dist directory and
> it doesn't get cleaned, it's hard to see how files in such a directory
> could interfere with the build.

Ah, there I wasn't referring to the problem of old build droppings 
upsetting the build, but to the fact that we always need to clean the 
tree and do a fresh build (they are related, of course).  You're right 
that the build system is doing better at keeping all its generated files 
together now, and we'll keep doing this when we change the build system.

We can do much better than we currently do at tracking dependencies, 
particularly between libraries.

Cheers,
	Simon