Neil Santos wrote:
On 17:25 29/05/04, Frank Heckenbach wrote:
As I said, I don't think "make" is a good thing to think of for a *normal* Pascal programmer. We're, of course, deep in the internals, but a normal programm doesn't want to (and shouldn't have to) think about when a compiler recreates which files. It should just produce a correct executable.
Sorry for the late reply.
First, something about me: Until a few days ago, I've never developed anything non-trivial on a UNIX platform. Until a few days ago, I've never even used a compiler on a UNIX, aside for installing other people's applications. At least, AFAICR.
My first programming language (ignoring BASIC, of course) is Pascal. For several years, I've only used Borland's Pascal environments (TP, BP, TPW, Delphi).
So, anyway, believe you me that a Pascal programmer (providing she hasn't been under a rock for the past, oh... decade or so?) will have, at some point in their programming experience come across the term `make' in the context of this discussion. Not only that, but that same programmer will at least have a vague (but usable) idea of what `make' in this context means.
This might seem like something against the arguments I have for renaming GP's executable into `gpc' after the Merge (see another message of mine in this thread), but that is not my intention.
Just my two cents. And sorry for the long reply; it's been a long day, and it's hard for me to think cohesively.
Make is not the same thing as a Pascal build. The simple proof is that make and a Pascal builder can both be used, perhaps in tandem. Make is like an assembly language of builds, Pascal builders are the high level language of builds.
Just because people knew what assemblers were, that didn't make it a good idea to name high level languages "assemblers".
Or, to express it in reverse, every one knows what make does. A Pascal builder does not do that.
Finally, I occasionally use a Pascal automatic builder, a make file, and even a shell script file to build Pascal programs, different solutions for different reasons. So I would not want "make" to do anything I don't expect make to do.