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From: alan@cwi.UUCP (Alan Wright )
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Anyone know of a "better" 'make' than vanilla System-V's?.
Summary: May we suggest AMPLIFY instead of make
Message-ID: <663@cwi.UUCP>
Date: 5 Oct 90 18:21:49 GMT
References: <1990Oct3.000440.5275@hades.ausonics.oz.au> <1015@gistdev.gist.com>
Organization: CaseWare, Inc., Costa Mesa, CA
Lines: 61

In article <1015@gistdev.gist.com>, flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett) writes:
> greyham@hades.ausonics.oz.au (Greyham Stoney) writes:
> 
> >My company is working on a medium-to-large software project for which we use
> >standard System-V 'make' to specify the rules by which objects are made from
> >source files, and for specifying the source file dependancies.
> 
> >There are some problems with this however, which lead me to ask if there is
> >anything better we could use; 

YES! You might wish to check into our product, Amplify Control(TM) from
Caseware.  It is specifically designed to provide a highly general and
flexible build capability which exceeds the capabilities of make
(and variants). All of the problems mentioned in these articles have
straightforward solutions under Amplify. (Incidentally, the build
procedure is specified both algorithmically and by graphical
description of the data flow involved.)

I should also mention that Amplify incorporates advanced configuration
management features, and thus may replace both make and SCCS.


> >* Dependancies must be explicitly listed in the Makefile; and they are never
> >	kept up to date: No ammount of forcing people is going to keep them up
> >	to date, and it's a pretty pointless exercise anyway.

> I've always though that at least something of this level should be possible.
> At the very least, figuring out what .h files a file depends upon, by
> scanning it for #include commands, could be done at make time.  But you

Amplify also includes an operation called "reconfigure", which updates both
the dependencies and version selection for a configuration, using user
defined rules for both. Such rules can, for example, require that changes
to source files (such as addition or deletion of include lines) cause
the update of dependency information.


> Unfortunately, I don't know of anything that does
> this right now-

Amplify does!


> Flint Pellett, Global Information Systems Technology, Inc.
> 1800 Woodfield Drive, Savoy, IL  61874     (217) 352-1165
> uunet!gistdev!flint or flint@gistdev.gist.com


For information about Amplify you may contact:

	Caseware, Inc.
	3530 Hyland Ave. #115
	Costa Mesa, CA 92626

or send e-mail to:

	amplify@cwi.com


Please note that although I work for Caseware, my opinions do not
necessarily reflect those of my employer.