Re: [Axiom-developer] RE: algebra Makefiles with explicit dependencies, bootstrap, fixed-points etc.

[Tim Daly Jr.]

"Bill Page" <address@hidden> writes:

> Tim,
> 
> On Monday, January 03, 2005 6:29 PM you wrote:
> > 
> > Ah, you've hit the nail in my memory. The cyclic dependencies
> > will cause the system to build in an arbitrary way. Adding the
> > dependencies causes the algebra to violate the build order
> > because make thinks it knows better.
> 
> If you give make the correct dependencies then it *does* know
> better. I do not agree that "cyclic dependencies will cause the
> system to build in an arbitrary way."
> 

FWIW, I have a cyclic dependency in an unrelated project, and make
does build in an arbitrary order wrt. that dependency.  That is, A
depends on B and B depends on A, and GNU make says:

     make[1]: Circular B <- A dependency dropped.

I'd love to hear about a better way to handle this cycle.  Is there an
idiom for "keep compiling one and then the other until a fixed point
is reached"?

If we were using ASDF, I bet we could do it with an around method or
something. :)

-- 
-Tim