>
> In studying the build process, I'd like to propose some simplifications
> while I go.
>
> Look at branch af-local
>
> https://github.com/hemmecke/fricas/network
>
> Semantic should (hopefully) be the same.
>
AFAICS it changes time of error checking: currently if no of
AF_LOCAL and AF_UNIX is defined we get error message from
C compiler.
Also, currently AXIOM_AF_LOCAL can be understood looking at C files
only. After change C programmer would have to look at configure.ac
to know what it means.
> May I commit?
>
Well, I probably would not make such a change: gain form earlier
error checking is minimal because if host supports sockets it
is supposed to define one of AF_LOCAL or AF_UNIX. For purpose
of understanding C code 'sockio.c' would loose a few lines but
actually would be more complicated because of dependency on
AXIOM_AF_LOCAL (note that AF_LOCAL and AF_UNIX are standard
symbols so programmer is expected to understand them).
BTW: We are in (slow) process of changing AXIOM* to FRICAS*.
This has low priority, but for example currently there are
only 4 uses of AXIOM in 'configure.ac'. You would change
this to 6, meaning 50% regression :).
> Ralf
>
> PS: There are other things that could be simplified. I don't quite
> understand the need for all these HAVE_... variables and the
> corresponding "#if defined" things in certain .c files.
> That pretty much looks like legacy code from the pre-autoconf era.
AFAICS the HAVE_... variables are the "autoconf way" of doing things.
I do not know original motivation for such style, but some speculations
are:
- autoconf needs a lot of variables, so it is natural to name its
variables in systematic way even if application code needs to
rename them
- having a single name for aspect as interface between autoconf
and other code reduces coupling between configure and other
code (which is good). Note that HAVE_... names are self-explanatory
and consequently as long as configure works correctly C programmer
has little need to look at configure.ac.
- autoconf folks nowadays want to mechanically generate 'configure.ac'
and because of this want the code to be as repetitive as possible,
in particular want systematically build names.
--
Waldek Hebisch
[email protected]
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"FriCAS - computer algebra system" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/fricas-devel?hl=en.
