On 10/29/99 5:21 PM Simon McClenahan ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
>> There is very very little of that that would be improved with
>> ./configure. The main thing it would fix is the small edits to the
>> Makefile for the Sun and a few other platforms. Other than that it is
>> going to help very little, make the download larger, make the compile
>> time longer, and add complexity.
>
>Those small edits to the Makefile for Sun and a few other platforms is
>where people get caught up. Some sites need an install procedure because
>they don't want to keep the executables with the source code. Having
>de-facto standard make targets like "all", "install" and "clean" are
>useful and simple.
I'm totally with you as far as the Makefile edits, and I will admit that
configure might be worth it just for that. On the other hand, it seems
like a shame to have everyone run configure just so 15% of users can get
the Makefile edits they need. It's probably worth it anyway.
'make clean' already exists, and it works just fine.
I still don't see what could be gained by 'make install'. There isn't any
rational default place to install Analog, and unless you are using the
CGI code, there isn't even anything that needs doing at all. You put
Analog where every you put it and you run it, end of story.
If you bring the CGI code into the picture there are way to many
different ways to set it up, with heavy dependencies on how your server
is configured. There isn't anything you could do that would work for
most, or even many, people and it is difficult to even formulate some
finite set of questions such that their answers would allow a script to
do something rational. The Windows version might be an exception to this,
but there isn't anything to gain on the other platforms.
>Hmmm ... and ideally, re-write everything using an object-oriented/modular
>design, and for cross-platform usability write it in Java :-)
Using C++ reduces portability significantly. Analog is already rather
object-oriented/modular for a C program. Writing in Java would make the
performance hopeless, many people use Analog to process Gigabytes of log
files. The very very best Java implementations are three times slower
than C and most are way slower than that.
Jason
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Dr. Seuss books . . . can be read and enjoyed on several levels. For
example, 'One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish' can be deconstructed
as a searing indictment of the narrow-minded binary counting system.
-- Peter van der Linden, Expert C Programming, Deep C Secrets
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