[Axiom-developer] Re: noweb

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

root <address@hidden> writes:

| there is still a bit of controversy over the noweb inclusion.
| some people (notably, but not limited to, FreeBSD) want to
| use natively installed noweb rather than build it. There is 
| supposed to be a version of noweb with the fix installed but
| i do not have it and have not tested it.

OK.  Certainly relying on the system noweb will simplify our build
machinery, or at least the version I'm currently working on.

However, I must point out that not all system have noweb install -- I
just checked that my development environment does not have noweb [from
which you will correctly infer that I do not use noweb].

A way out of this dilemma is as you suggest below:

| a possible path is to use the configure script to test whether
| the native installed noweb has the proper fix and, if not, to
| build a local copy. as is evident from reading configure i'm
| not a shell script programmer so i don't try to decide this
| issue. i'm waiting for someone with better configure skills
| to tackle the issue.

Well, my question popped up precisely because I started working on
converting Axiom's build machinery to use Autoconf.  I'm doing this on
a branch from the silver sources called "build-improvements".  No,
there is no change checked in yet; all is on my machine.
So, consider the writer of this message as being at your service
working on that aspect of that particular aspect of noweb requirement,
if given sufficient details :-) 

| modules.c is one way to fix the noweb bug. i've submitted it
| as a patch to norman ramsey but he rejected it saying that i
| should use sed/awk to fix the problem rather than patch the
| C code. unfortunately i'm not a sed/awk programmer so rather
| than learn two new tools i simply kept the patch (which works).

Can you give me a test for detecting the problem, or at least a
detailed description of how to reproduce it?  Did Norman Ramsey
suggest on which file you should use the sed/awk fix?
Again, I'm willing to help out that issue:  It stands in my way of
making progress on the build machinery stuff.

| if the system-installed noweb is used certain domains are broken.
| this will happen quietly in the current system unless you use
|  make NOISE=

OK, I'll provide a configure option called --verbose to instruct
generated Makefiles to set NOISE as approprite..

| 
| is there an 'address@hidden' mailing list?

No, that is just me who botched the Axiom mailing list -- fixed
thusly.  I do not have a copy of my original mail, please could you
resend it to the list?  Thanks!

There seems to be two lists named axiom-developer: One at sourceforge,
and one at nongnu.org.  I believe we should "close" the former. 

-- Gaby