Optimization request

[Daniel Pfeiffer]

Hi,

not a bug, but I don't know where to send this.

We have successfully compiled gmake on the Posix subsystem of Fujitsu-Siemens 
BS2000 mainframes.  Problem is that it is pretty slow, since the concept of 
fork and exec is foreign to this system.  They are emulated in a very costly 
manner.

Since even on Unix these calls don't come for free either, I'd like to suggest 
that you take up the concept of Perl's system function.  That scans the string 
passed for shell meta-characters and, if none are found, splits it up on 
whitespace and executes the command itself.

As make is mostly about starting commands, this should give a measurable 
optimization for big projects even on Unix.

best regards
Daniel