in reply to Re^2: Make program used by Perl in windows
in thread Make program used by Perl in windows

Is it possible to have a Gnu Make and a dmake distribution in CPAN at the same time?

Yes, but you shouldn't be writing makefiles, you should do everything possible to avoid writing makefiles.

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Re^4: Make program used by Perl in windows
by bojinlund (Monsignor) on May 01, 2012 at 15:17 UTC
    Yes, but you shouldn't be writing makefiles, you should do everything possible to avoid writing makefiles.

    I agree!

    However, I believe that a possibility to use the same make program in L/Unix and Windows, at least for Perl modules, would facilitate portability. I am trying to understand if there is a (long term) possibility to use GNU make also in Windows.

    A possible path seem to be:

    • A GNU Make distribution for Windows in CPAN
    • A patched ExtUtils::MakeMaker that can create Makefiles that the Windows version of GNU Make understands
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      Perl on Windows is currently built using either dmake.exe or nmake.exe. There is no way to currently build Perl on Windows using a GNU make. Also, ExtUtils::MakeMaker likely does not really support outputting GNU makefiles on Windows.

      Traditionally, Perl uses the same toolchain that it was built with for building its modules. I'm not sure why you would want to change that, because that toolchain is proven to work well. Most likely, changing the make utility involves patching ExtUtils::MakeMaker to properly recognize the new type of make tool and produce the appropriate output.

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        Traditionally, Perl uses the same toolchain that it was built with for building its modules.

        Is it just a tradition or is it more? Is it possible to use different make programs even for different Perl modules?

        I'm not sure why you would want to change that, because that toolchain is proven to work well.

        I am thinking of:

        • Difficult to find good documentation on Dmake
        • GNU Make is more known than Dmake. There is a bigger user community.
        • GNU Make has a bigger “maintenance” group, with more frequent releases.
        Most likely, changing the make utility involves patching ExtUtils::MakeMaker to properly recognize the new type of make tool and produce the appropriate output.

        Yes, I know. And ExtUtils::MakeMaker is also "doomed" by it's maintainer!

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