--with-mpi=0 is a command, which is mandatory, and --with-sizeofint=8 seems to specify an optional parameter. To me '--with' suggests something optional, so I'd vote for keeping '--with' to indicate optional parameters and replace it with '--use' (an imperative) when specifying mandatory commands.
How's that sound? Thanks. Dmitry. On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 3:14 PM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> wrote: > > ? I think a root of the miscommunication between Matt and I with regard to > --with-mpi-shared is that --with is used for TWO different reasons > > 1) --with-mpi=0 --with-x=1 etc are used to indicate we want to turn off/on a > package. In other words they are COMMANDS to BuildSystem > > 2) --with-mpi-shared=1, --with-sizeofint=8 tells BuildSystems FACTS that it > would normally be figured out by BuildSystem. Usually they are provided on > the command line because ./configure cannot run compiled programs (using > --with-batch for example). > > ? I suggest we can the syntax for 2) and consistently use --known-mpi-shared > --known-sizeofint=8 etc everywhere in help and BuildSystem. It makes things > much clearer and can prevent loads of confusion. > > ? This is likely not compatible with how autoconf does things. Do they have > a similar split and different names? Is there anything we can copy from > their approach? Do we care? > > > ? What do others think? > > ? Barry > >
