I will know in a few days. 

So far, it looks like SCons is MUCH better on Cygwin and native Windows, so
I am going to try it on Linux. 

SCons is 2 external dependencies for Csound (Python and SCons itself)
instead of 3 or 4 with autoconf, autoheader, automake, libtool, etc., runs
faster, builds objects faster, and is MUCH easier to understand. Also, it
easily supports Microsoft Visual Studio.

Because of this, making changes to the build system and testing them with
SCons is MUCH faster than with autotools.

I also need to try building shared libraries, which was a sore point with
autotools on Windows and Cygwin, and then building on Linux. If those
things work out, believe me, I'll dump autotools for SCons in a flash.

Perhaps autotools are better if you need to support many, many varieties of
Linux and Unix. There seems to be more detail in autotools for probing
libraries and headers. But SCons does have similar functionality.

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Gabriel Maldonado g.maldonado@inwind.it
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 17:32:55 +0100
To: csound-dev@eartha.mills.edu
Subject: [CSOUND-DEV:4287] RE: Csoudn5 yet again


Can SCons replace libtools and behave better than them in multiplatform 
projects? Python is not a problem, because all major platforms support it.

Gabriel

Anthony Kozar wrote:
> I have downloaded and taken a brief look at SCons before.  I am actually
> planning to adapt it to work on Mac OS 9 and use it as a core component
in a
> new MacOS front-end for Csound.  SCons would be used to automate
dependency
> analysis and "build" complicated Csound projects that involve multiple
steps
> (utility analyses, score generation, score processing, and/or multiple
calls
> to Csound).
> 
> So, I am fine with SCons.  I can probably even use it to build Csound on
> MacOS 9.
> 
> Anthony Kozar
> anthony.kozar@utoledo.edu
> 
> 
> On 3/10/04 9:58 AM, gogins@pipeline.com etched in
> stone:
> 
> 
>>But I am getting fed up with autotools, and I'm looking at alternative
>>cross-platform build systems. I'm looking at boost jam, CMake, and SCons.
I
>>am going to experiment with SCons first, because it promises to work on
Mac
>>OS X, Linux, and Windows, and on Windows to use MSVC++ 7.1 which can be
>>downloaded for free. However it uses Python. Are you willing to
contemplate
>>a build system that depends on Python? Python most definitely runs and
>>installs on all Linuxes, most Unixes, Windows, and Macs.
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Gabriel Maldonado
http://csounds.com/maldonado
--


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"gogins@pipeline.com"  writes:

> So far, it looks like SCons is MUCH better on Cygwin and native
> Windows, so I am going to try it on Linux.

If SCons turns out to be a winner, I'll convert csound4 so it uses it.
Maybe such a change will make John ffitch's problems disappear.  Let me
know when you are really sure it is *the answer*.

Speaking of changing infrastructure, have you heard about Subversion?
It's a replacement for, and a huge improvement over CVS.  I hear that
SourceForge is looking at it.

http://subversion.tigris.org

John

Greetings:

  I'm sorry to hear that mastering autotools has turned out to be such a 
trial for Csound's cross-platform development. While I've nothing in 
particular against SCons I thought it might be worth noting the 
following items:

    1. SCons is not a regular component of mainstream Linux 
distributions. Users desiring to build Csound from sources will need to 
download and install it themselves.
    2. The SCons system is fairly simple for the normal user, but it 
does mean one more build system to learn.
    3. Out of all the Linux sound and music applications I've built and 
used (which means most of them) exactly one has used SCons (Juan 
Linietsky's Cheesetracker). Csound would make two.

  Just my couple of drachmas...

Best regards,

dp

Dave Phillips  writes:

>     1. SCons is not a regular component of mainstream Linux
> distributions.

When and if Michael endorses SCons, for csound4, I was planning to add
it to the existing ways for creating a distribution, and not replace
autotools for distribution building.  I was thinking it might allow
me to handle the John ffitch-like cases.

John