Re: [Chicken-hackers] [PATCH] platform auto-detection mechanism

[Michele La Monaca]

Hi Mario!

> Alternatively, there's the trick of exporting PLATFORM from your shell
> configuration file.

Good one.

>> Maybe there are good reasons I overlooked not to use an auto-detection
>> mechanism (maybe it's just not really feasible) but in case, here it
>> is my naive attempt.  I wouldn't bet on it but I would give it a try.
>
> The idea is interesting, indeed.  What about cross-builds?

The autodetection mechanism is "skipped" if you explicitly set the PLATFORM on
the command line or in config.make. I hardly see any problem in
this regard.  But if you do, let me know, I've never tried to cross-compile
chicken and I have absolutely no intention to do so (life is too short!).  So I
can't tell for sure.

As a general remark, if I may be permitted this comment, I would never
ever sacrifice a
feature for the sake of cross-compilation, I have seen other projects too
encumbered by cross-compilation to have the time and freedom to deliver anything
useful. But that's your project, of course.

>> My main concerns are about those mingw things... I'am not exactly an
>> expert in the field.
>
> Yeah, we have only a few people testing Chicken on Windows, and it it
> causes breakages when we least expect them.  Autodetection on Windows
> sounds particularly hard.

Same comment here. Autodetection is optional, if Windows and its Unix-like
offprings are too tough to tame, well, let's continue to set PLATFORM on those.
Autodection would do no harm. I would not sacrifice this handy feature for just
one nasty platform. Anyway, I wouldn't feel so pessimistic about that.

Regards,
mikele