But in M$-windows system dmake probably made a compromise? Or it's run with special command-line flags?

dmake uses a syntax that looks a little bit like GNU make, but it has some nasty differences. Quoting its man page:

dmake is not compatible with GNU Make. In particular it does not understand GNU Make's macro expansions that query the file system.

dmake is fully compatible with SYSV AUGMAKE

And yes, dmake can use spaces instead of tabs:

OPTIONS

[...]

-B
Enable the use of spaces instead of <tabs> to begin recipe lines. This flag equivalent to the .NOTABS special macro and is further described below.

[...]

CONTROL MACROS

[...]

.NOTABS
When set to "yes" enables the use of spaces as well as <tabs> to begin recipe lines. By default a non-group recipe is terminated by a line without any leading white-space or by a line not beggining with a <tab> character. Enabling this mode modifies the first condition of the above termination rule to terminate a non-group recipe with a line that contains only white-space. This mode does not effect the parsing of group recipes bracketed by [].

Alexander

--
Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)

In reply to Re: Makefile caveat: tabs not spaces by afoken
in thread let Makefile.PL to do the Readme file for me -- new target? by Discipulus

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