On 26 Mar 2001, Stefan Bodewig wrote: > >> * build files should be declarative in nature > > > > +1 if we could ever agree on exactly what "declarative" means. :-] > > Having studied physics and not computer science it is amusing to > follow the discussion - in physics somebody would have provided a > reference to some well known standard definition of each and every > term (not that this would make discussion any easier ;-).
I actually started taking a look at this when everybody started piling on Peter about syntax for a declarative language for build files. I started a pretty extensive literature search, but what I found out is that there is a surprising lack of published material on this topic (surprising when you consider that in during the 1970's in the U.S., you could pretty much get a Phd in Computer Science by designing a grammar for some new language in some paradigm and writing a compiler for it). The stuff I did find was about Prolog, so I'm in the process of reading it all. I'll report back when I have something concrete and useful to add to the discussion. Bill
