From alan-make-cafe at engrm.com  Wed Oct 12 07:45:38 2005
From: alan-make-cafe at engrm.com (Alan Gutierrez)
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 07:45:38 -0400
Subject: [Rant] Rant Directions
In-Reply-To: <200509302056.51235.langstefan@gmx.at>
References: <20050930135529.GA26809@maribor.izzy.net>
	<200509302056.51235.langstefan@gmx.at>
Message-ID: <20051012114537.GC22181@maribor.izzy.net>

* Stefan Lang <langstefan at gmx.at> [2005-09-30 14:46]:
> On Friday 30 September 2005 15:55, Alan Gutierrez wrote:
> >     Is there a Wiki or something with a project outline?
> 
> Currently there is only the site under http://make.ruby-co.de
> The section "Getting started" has two links which point to all
> available documentation for Rant.
> 
> Perhaps this isn't enough, especially if you don't already know
> Ruby. Just ask on this list if you have questions.
> 
> Also the Rant package (gem, tar.gz or zip) contains some
> examples under the doc/examples directory. Try them out and
> read the buildfiles to get a feeling for Rant.

    By directions I meant, where the project is headed. What are
    your plans for Rant? What tool support are you looking for?

    Curious.

--
Alan Gutierrez - alan at engrm.com - http://engrm.com/blogometer/

From langstefan at gmx.at  Wed Oct 12 16:52:57 2005
From: langstefan at gmx.at (Stefan Lang)
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 22:52:57 +0200
Subject: [Rant] Rant Directions
In-Reply-To: <20051012114537.GC22181@maribor.izzy.net>
References: <20050930135529.GA26809@maribor.izzy.net>
	<200509302056.51235.langstefan@gmx.at>
	<20051012114537.GC22181@maribor.izzy.net>
Message-ID: <200510122252.57941.langstefan@gmx.at>

On Wednesday 12 October 2005 13:45, Alan Gutierrez wrote:

Forbear with me, English is not my native language.

>     By directions I meant, where the project is headed. What are
>     your plans for Rant? What tool support are you looking for?

The first goal is to make Rant a feature rich general purpose
build tool on top of which it should be easy to provide
specialized support for different programming languages/environments.

Perhaps after a 1.0 release development for builtin
support for different languages (similar to scons) will start.
(Currently there is support for C#, but that needs rework.)

Languages could be C#, Java, Haskell, OCaml, D and C/C++(hardest,
but all others can interface to C and for Ruby extensions).

Some short term goals:

* A task that creates a file by shell command(s). The file
  will be rebuilt if a dependency or the command changes.
  Syntax could be:

    gen Command, "a" => sys["a.c", "b.c"] do |t| "
        gcc #{var :CFLAGS} -o #{t.name} {t.prerequisites}
    " end

* General install/uninstall tasks.

Kind regards,
  Stefan

From langstefan at gmx.at  Fri Oct 21 10:40:17 2005
From: langstefan at gmx.at (Stefan Lang)
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:40:17 +0200
Subject: [Rant] Subversion repository for Rant
Message-ID: <200510211640.17782.langstefan@gmx.at>

Since I prefer Subversion over CVS, I didn't use the CVS repository
on RubyForge. A few days ago I searched for other possibilities
to make my private repository publicly available and I found berliOS
attractive.

If you want to follow Rant development closer, you can checkout
with:

    % svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/rant/trunk

and later:

    % svn update

to stay up to date.

To get a specific Rant release version, e.g. 0.4.6 type:

    % svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/rant/tags/rant-0.4.6

More info and Web interface:
 https://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=5046

Have a nice weekend!
-- 
Stefan Lang

From langstefan at gmx.at  Fri Oct 21 10:43:28 2005
From: langstefan at gmx.at (Stefan Lang)
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:43:28 +0200
Subject: [Rant] Subversion repository for Rant
In-Reply-To: <200510211640.17782.langstefan@gmx.at>
References: <200510211640.17782.langstefan@gmx.at>
Message-ID: <200510211643.28170.langstefan@gmx.at>

On Friday 21 October 2005 16:40, Stefan Lang wrote:

>
> More info and Web interface:
>  https://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=5046

or (HTTP instead of HTTPS):
  http://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=5046

-- 
Stefan Lang

From lthiry at skynet.be  Fri Oct 21 17:58:04 2005
From: lthiry at skynet.be (Lionel Thiry)
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 23:58:04 +0200
Subject: [Rant] Subversion repository for Rant
In-Reply-To: <200510211640.17782.langstefan@gmx.at>
References: <200510211640.17782.langstefan@gmx.at>
Message-ID: <4359646C.3090503@skynet.be>

Stefan Lang a ?crit :

>Since I prefer Subversion over CVS, I didn't use the CVS repository
>on RubyForge. A few days ago I searched for other possibilities
>to make my private repository publicly available and I found berliOS
>attractive.
>
>If you want to follow Rant development closer, you can checkout
>with:
>
>    % svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/rant/trunk
>
>and later:
>
>    % svn update
>
>to stay up to date.
>
>To get a specific Rant release version, e.g. 0.4.6 type:
>
>    % svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/rant/tags/rant-0.4.6
>
>More info and Web interface:
> https://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=5046
>
>Have a nice weekend!
>  
>
What a good idea! :)

-- 
Lionel Thiry

Personal web site: http://users.skynet.be/lthiry/


From langstefan at gmx.at  Sat Oct 22 18:55:40 2005
From: langstefan at gmx.at (Stefan Lang)
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:55:40 +0200
Subject: [Rant] rant -n
In-Reply-To: <20051022084549.GA1008@bathost>
References: <20051022084549.GA1008@bathost>
Message-ID: <200510230055.40960.langstefan@gmx.at>


Forwarded message:

On Saturday 22 October 2005 10:45, Barrie Stott wrote:
> A quick question for you: do you intend to add a -n option to rant
> so that a dry run can be performed? It's something make has and,
> when I'm struggling a bit to find what is happening, it's often
> been useful.

Yes, rant will have such an option, but it can't work exactly
like "make -n", since a task action can contain arbitrary Ruby
code. It could look something like the following:

Rantfile:

    task :a => "foo" do
        puts "built programs"
    end

    file "foo" => ["foo.c", "foo.h"] do |t|
        sys "gcc", "-o", t.name, t.source
    end

Running rant with "dry run" option:

    % rant -n
    Invoking "a"
    Invoking "foo" ("foo.c" requires update)
    Executing "foo"
    Executing "a"

Assuming "foo" was built correctly:

    % rant -n
    Invoking "a"
    Invoking "foo"
    Executing "a"

A first version of this feature will probably come with one of
the next two releases. If you have suggestions/ideas, let me know.

Kind regards,
  Stefan

From langstefan at gmx.at  Sun Oct 30 18:04:14 2005
From: langstefan at gmx.at (Stefan Lang)
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:04:14 +0100
Subject: [Rant] Command tasks, command change recognition
Message-ID: <200510310004.14765.langstefan@gmx.at>

My latest development efforts have gone into the creation of a task
that recognizes command changes. I would like to hear your opinions
about the syntax, semantics, etc.

== General usage

Consider the following Rantfile for rant 0.4.6:

    var :CFLAGS => "-g -O2"    # can be overriden from commandline
    
    file "foo" => ["foo.o", "util.o"] do |t|
        sys "cc -o #{t.name} #{var :CFLAGS} #{t.prerequisites.join(' 
')}"
    end

    gen Rule, ".o" => ".c" do |t|
        sys "cc -c -o #{t.name} #{var :CFLAGS} #{t.source}"
    end

The problem with this buildfile is, that it won't recognize
a change of CFLAGS, i.e. foo.o, util.o and foo should get
rebuilt whenever CFLAGS changes.

With Rant 0.4.7, it is possible to do the following:

    import "command"

    var :CFLAGS => "-g -O2"    # can be overriden from commandline
    
    gen Command, "foo" => ["foo.o", "util.o"] do |t|
        # notice: we're not calling the sys method, we
        # are returning a string from the block
        "cc -o #{t.name} #{var :CFLAGS} #{t.prerequisites.join(' ')}"
    end

    # possible since 0.4.7: if the block to Rule takes two arguments,
    # it is expected to return a task
    gen Rule, ".o" => ".c" do |target, sources|
        gen Command, target => sources do |t|
            "cc -c -o #{t.name} #{var :CFLAGS} #{t.source}"
        end
    end

Now, whenever the command to build foo or a *.o file changes,
it will be rebuilt.
There is also a more concise syntax:

    import "command"

    var :CFLAGS => "-g -O2"
    
    # first argument (string) is the task/file name, second
    # argument (string, array or filelist) is a list of
    # prerequisites (notice: no `target => prereqs' syntax!)
    # third argument is a command string, which will be
    # executed by a subshell.
    gen Command, "foo", ["foo.o", "util.o"],
        "cc -o $(>) $[CFLAGS] $(<)"

    gen Rule, ".o" => ".c" do |target, sources|
        gen Command, target, sources,
            "cc -c -o $(<) $[CFLAGS] $(-)"
    end

For the last syntax:
== Interpolation of variables into command strings:

=== Which variables are interpolated?

1. Instance variables (mostly for internal usage), e.g.:
  @cc = "cc"

2. "var" variables (can be set from commandline, easy
synchronization with environment variables), e.g.:
  var :cc => "cc"

3. Special, task specific variables
  "name" (symbol equivalent ">")
      task name
  "prerequisites" (symbol equivalent "<")
      all prerequisites seperated by spaces
  "source" (symbol equivalent "-")
      first prerequisite
   more task specific variables might get added later

=== Syntax of variable interpolation

Variable names must consist only of "word characters",
i.e. matching \w in Ruby regexes.

1. Plain interpolation
   Example command:  "echo $[ARGS]"
   The contents of variable ARGS (either @ARGS or var[:ARGS])
   are converted to a string and interpolated.
   If the variable contains an array, ARGS.join(' ')
   is interpolated.

2. Escaped interpolation
   Example command: "echo ${ARGS}"
   Like plain interpolation, but spaces will be escaped
   (system dependent).
   Consider this Rantfile:
      
       import "command"
       @args = ["a b", "c d", "ef"]
       @sh_puts = "ruby -e \"puts ARGV\""
       gen Command, "foo", "$[sh_puts] ${args} > $(>)"

    Running rant will give on Windows:
        ruby -e "puts ARGV" "a b" "c d" ef > foo
    and on other systems:
        ruby -e "puts ARGV" a\ b c\ d ef > foo

3. Path interpolation
   Example command: "echo $(ARGS)"
   Like escaped interpolation, but additionally, forward slashes
   (as used for filenames in Rantfiles) will be replaced with
   backslashes on Windows.

=== More on semantics of variable interpolation

Interpolation is recursive, except for special target variables.

There is a small semantic difference between the verbose
special target variables (name prerequisites source) and
the symbolic ones (< > -):
The symbolic ones are interpolated *after* checking if the command
has changed since the last build, the verbose forms are interpolated
*before*.

Consider this (artifical, using the Unix tool "cat") example:
Rantfile (symbolic special target vars):

    import "command"
    @src = ["src1", "src2"]
    @src = var[:SRC].split if var[:SRC]
    gen Command, "foo", @src, "cat $(<) > $(>)"

    % echo a > src1
    % echo b > src2
    % echo b > src3
    % rant
    cat src1 src2 > foo

"foo" didn't exist, so it was built anyway. Now let us
change the prerequisite list:

    % rant "SRC=src1 src3"

won't cause a rebuild of foo. Dependencies of foo changed
from ["src1", "src2"] to ["src1", "src3"] but since
src2 and src3 have the same content and $(<) isn't expanded
for command change recognition, rant considers foo up to date.

Now change Rantfile to (verbose special target vars):

    import "command"
    @src = ["src1", "src2"]
    @src = var[:SRC].split if var[:SRC]
    gen Command, "foo", @src, "cat $(prerequisites) > $(name)"

Starting from scratch:
    % echo a > src1
    % echo b > src2
    % echo b > src3
    % rant
    cat src1 src2 > foo
    % rant "SRC=src1 src3"
    cat src1 src3 > foo

This time, Rant expanded $(prerequisites) for command change
recognition, and since the prerequsite list changed, it caused a
rebuild.

You can test all that by checking out the latest & greatest with:

    % svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/rant/trunk

OK, thank you for reading this damm long (too long ;) post!
Please let me hear your suggestions, critics, questions...

Kind regards,
  Stefan

From langstefan at gmx.at  Mon Oct 31 14:35:15 2005
From: langstefan at gmx.at (Stefan Lang)
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:35:15 +0100
Subject: [Rant] Rant 0.4.8 released
Message-ID: <200510312035.15488.langstefan@gmx.at>

== What's new in this release?

Incompatible changes:
* The filenames Rantfile.rb and rantfile.rb which
  were deprecated since the last release aren't recognized anymore.
  Use Rantfile, rantfile or root.rant instead.

Deprecated:
* The two undocumented Array methods ary.arglist and
  ary.shell_pathes are deprecated. Use sys.sp(ary)
  in Rantfiles instead.
* rant-import -v option. Use -V or --version instead.

Fixes and minor improvements:
* Fix output of rant -T for descriptions with more than two lines.
* Filelists: Same handling of files starting with a dot with all
  supported ruby versions (1.8.0 - 1.9).
* The sys.ruby method uses an absolute path to start the Ruby
  interpreter. Thus sys.ruby also works if ruby is not on the
  PATH.
* Fix for latest ruby 1.9, which renamed +fcall+ to +funcall+.
* A fix for ruby 1.8.4 preview1 regarding sys methods visibility.

New features:
* rant-import supports --zip (-z) option for zip-compression now.
* Tasks with command change recognition.
* Improved rule support.

I have also written an Rant/Rake comparison. It's available under
http://make.rubyforge.org/files/doc/rant_vs_rake_rdoc.html

== Installing Rant

You can install Rant as a RubyGem:
? ? % gem install --remote rant

or download the package from 
RubyForge(http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=615)
and install with install.rb:
? ? % ruby install.rb

== Example Rantfile

  import "command"

  var :CFLAGS => "-g -O2" # can be overridden from commandline

  gen Command, "foo", ["foo.o", "util.o"],
      "cc $[CFLAGS] -o $(name) $(prerequisites)"


The last two lines tell Rant, that the file foo depends on the files 
foo.o and util.o and that foo can be built by running the command in 
the last line ("cc ?") in a subshell. If at least one of the 
following three conditions is met, foo will be rebuilt: 

1. foo doesn?t exist. 
2. foo.o or util.o changed since the last build of foo. 
3. The command (most probably CFLAGS) changed since the last build
   of foo.

== Resources

Homepage:: visit http://make.ruby-co.de
Rubyforge page:: http://rubyforge.org/projects/make/
Repository:: http://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=5046

-- 
Stefan


From lthiry at skynet.be  Mon Oct 31 19:06:01 2005
From: lthiry at skynet.be (Lionel Thiry)
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 01:06:01 +0100
Subject: [Rant] Rant 0.4.8 released
In-Reply-To: <200510312035.15488.langstefan@gmx.at>
References: <200510312035.15488.langstefan@gmx.at>
Message-ID: <4366B169.30307@skynet.be>

Stefan Lang a ?crit :

>== What's new in this release?
>
>Incompatible changes:
>* The filenames Rantfile.rb and rantfile.rb which
>  were deprecated since the last release aren't recognized anymore.
>  Use Rantfile, rantfile or root.rant instead.
>  
>
What is the reason for this? A Rantfile is a ruby script after all and
most Editors will need the rb extension to know the correct highlight to
apply.

>Deprecated:
>* The two undocumented Array methods ary.arglist and
>  ary.shell_pathes are deprecated. Use sys.sp(ary)
>  in Rantfiles instead.
>* rant-import -v option. Use -V or --version instead.
>
>Fixes and minor improvements:
>* Fix output of rant -T for descriptions with more than two lines.
>* Filelists: Same handling of files starting with a dot with all
>  supported ruby versions (1.8.0 - 1.9).
>* The sys.ruby method uses an absolute path to start the Ruby
>  interpreter. Thus sys.ruby also works if ruby is not on the
>  PATH.
>* Fix for latest ruby 1.9, which renamed +fcall+ to +funcall+.
>* A fix for ruby 1.8.4 preview1 regarding sys methods visibility.
>
>New features:
>* rant-import supports --zip (-z) option for zip-compression now.
>* Tasks with command change recognition.
>* Improved rule support.
>
>I have also written an Rant/Rake comparison. It's available under
>http://make.rubyforge.org/files/doc/rant_vs_rake_rdoc.html
>
>== Installing Rant
>
>You can install Rant as a RubyGem:
>    % gem install --remote rant
>
>or download the package from 
>RubyForge(http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=615)
>and install with install.rb:
>    % ruby install.rb
>
>== Example Rantfile
>
>  import "command"
>
>  var :CFLAGS => "-g -O2" # can be overridden from commandline
>
>  gen Command, "foo", ["foo.o", "util.o"],
>      "cc $[CFLAGS] -o $(name) $(prerequisites)"
>
>
>The last two lines tell Rant, that the file foo depends on the files 
>foo.o and util.o and that foo can be built by running the command in 
>the last line ("cc ?") in a subshell. If at least one of the 
>following three conditions is met, foo will be rebuilt: 
>
>1. foo doesn?t exist. 
>2. foo.o or util.o changed since the last build of foo. 
>3. The command (most probably CFLAGS) changed since the last build
>   of foo.
>
>== Resources
>
>Homepage:: visit http://make.ruby-co.de
>Rubyforge page:: http://rubyforge.org/projects/make/
>Repository:: http://developer.berlios.de/svn/?group_id=5046
>
>  
>
Your work is impressive as usual! Thanks! :)

-- 
Lionel Thiry

Personal web site: http://users.skynet.be/lthiry/