Re: [kbuild-devel] Converting the 2.5 kernel to kbuild 2.5

Horst von Brand
2001-12-05T11:15:48Z

"Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com> said:
> Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>:
> > > Unfortunately, the syntax of CML1 is rebarbative, and its imperative
> > > semantics cannot be mechanically translated to CML2's declarative
> > > semantics by any means I'm aware of.
> >
> > The dependancy tree from CML1 is not that hard to obtain. It's not quite
> > complete or correct though
>
> That's right -- and the devil would be in the incomplete/incorrect
> details. Areas of special pain: (1) cross-directory constraints, (2)
> derivations, (3) multiple port tree apexes. These are all areas where
> CML1 has design flaws that human coders get around by applying
> higher-level knowledge of a kind a mechanical translator couldn't
> have.
>
> This is, alas, one of those cases where the first 90% of the problem looks
> easy and the last 10% turns ought to be nigh-impossible -- and the
> first 90% is useless without the last 10%.

And doing the hard work of getting even 60% done automatically for a
one-shot conversion (or very near of that) makes absolutely no sense.
--
Dr. Horst H. von Brand User #22616 counter.li.org
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