[m-rev.] for review: brace expansion

[Fergus Henderson]

On 06-May-2003, Zoltan Somogyi <zs at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> 
> compiler/handle_options.m:
> 	Perform brace expansion on all options that specify lists of
> 	directories.
> 
> doc/user_guide.texi:
> 	Document the brace expansion of the values of the affected options.
> 
> library/dir.m:
> 	Add a function expand_braces.
> 
> NEWS:
> 	Mention the new function.
> 
> tests/hard_coded/brace.{m,exp}:
> 	New test case to test the new function.
> 
> tests/hard_coded/Mmakefile:
> 	Enable the new test case.

That all looks fine.

However, I'm not sure if it is the best way of achieving your objective
of making the bootcheck output more readable.  As you pointed out
yourself, this change would not be sufficient to make the output
actually readable.

I think it might be better to just change the command which gets invoked,
so that instead of invoking a very long command name with a very very
long list of arguments, it just invokes a script in the current directory.
E.g.
	MC = ./run_mc
	MCFLAGS = `cat ./mcflags`

Another alternative would be to add

	ifeq($(VERBOSE),yes)
	MAYBE_SILENT=@
	else
	MAYBE_SILENT=
	fi

to Mmake.rules, and have "mmake --verbose" set VERBOSE=yes, then change
all the rules that produce too much output to use $(MAYBE_SILENT), e.g.

$(c_dates_subdir)%.c_date : %.m
        $(MCG) $(ALL_GRADEFLAGS) $(ALL_MCGFLAGS) $(*F) $(ERR_REDIRECT)

would become

$(c_dates_subdir)%.c_date : %.m
        @echo compiling $*.m to $(cs_subdir)$*.c
        $(MAYBE_SILENT) $(MCG) $(ALL_GRADEFLAGS) $(ALL_MCGFLAGS) $(*F) $(ERR_REDIRECT)


-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
The University of Melbourne         |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
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