On Fri, 28 Aug 1998, Nicholas Bodley wrote:
>
> Maybe someone can reassure me about compiling. Seems that the details of
> anything but the simplest compilation are controlled by a make file
> (makefile?). However, I get the feeling that one needs to be a
> fairly-experienced programmer to be sure that the contents of a makefile
> are correct, so in my case, I feel I'm trusting to luck and the
> competence of the creator of the makefile. In practice, I probably have
> little to worry about.
>
> Another worry is about command-line switches. While I can use the more
> commonplace switches OK for things like ls, rm, head, tail, etc.,
> compiler switches seem scary; maybe they need not be.
>
> What I feel (and I'm probably quite wrong) is that if I were to try to
> compile a kernel, for instance, some detail (such as a wrong switch
> setting) would prevent success. Maybe the combination of an error log,
> properly reported, ditto a description/list of the important params.,
> and generous people on this List should be likely to solve things.
>
> It's also likely that a well-written HOWTO contains carefully-written
> instructions on specific switch and other option settings, etc.
>
> Basically, still trying to get over the feeling that compiling is
> something done successfully only by experienced programmers.
There is no doubt that 'make' is a complex program that has a load of
capabilities. Nevertheless, a simple compilation of a simple one module
program many times does not require any great number of arcane "switches"
for 'gcc' when used from the command line. On my Slackware 3.2 system
the man pages say a little about gcc and make, but the main documetation
is in the GNU 'info' files. There is a lot of it--many hours of happy
bed-time reading.
Makefiles for complicated programs are complex--so much so that other
utilities have been written to aid in writing then automatically. Two of
these are the imake system and GNU configure(sp?).
Good Luck,
Gordon A. Gallup Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-0111
Voice: (402)472-1230 FAX: (402)472-2879
http://www.unl.edu/physics/
