On Tue, Apr 13, 2004 at 10:14:53PM -0700, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
> An OCaml-centric packaging tool should be written in OCaml.  Nobody's
> switching to OCaml out of their love for C and C++!  If that means GODI
> is unsuitable to task, that is unfortunate but reality is reality.
> Other languages such as Python and Java have spawned their own build
> tools.  There's a lot more to the world than Make.
> 
> So how is OCamake?  Is it not the obvious place to begin?

First:
Due to the great variety of operating systems out there, I think autoconf, etc
has it exactly right - separating one stage of the build to "adjust" to the
system you are building on is a Good Idea.  

Second:
I like the idea of OCamake... I wrote ocamlconf with similar things in mind (a
strictly ocaml-centric build tool), but with only the intent of replacing the
"configure" portion of a build.  A combination with OCamake might prove fruitful
for an all-ocaml build process.

Third:
Porting to Windows is a pain in the ass without cygwin.  With just
autoconf/automake, one can make a C program that installs and runs (yes, the
build process is part of the install for _most_ OS's) on almost any unix, and
cygwin.  Making a special exception for Windows without cygwin isn't at the top
of my TODO list, particularly since there's not even a pretense of meeting me
halfway (for example, by adopting POSIX and providing a bourne shell).

I want to supply the same thing for ocaml through ocamlconf.  All it requires
(to my knowledge) is ocaml, a bourne shell, and make (not restricted to gnu
make, I think).

Kenn

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