Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!haven!vrdxhq!daitc!daitc.daitc.mil
From: jkrueger@daitc.daitc.mil (Jonathan Krueger)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: ingres, alt method for building abf applications
Message-ID: <511@daitc.daitc.mil>
Date: 8 May 89 10:49:54 GMT
References: <1506@infinet.UUCP>
Sender: jkrueger@daitc.daitc.mil
Reply-To: jkrueger@daitc.daitc.mil (Jonathan Krueger)
Organization: DTIC Special Projects Office (DTIC-SPO), Alexandria VA
Lines: 43
In-reply-to: sena@infinet.UUCP (Fred Sena)

In article <1506@infinet.UUCP>, sena@infinet (Fred Sena) writes:
>Unix utilities tend to be set up such that they can run in a "non-interactive"
>mode.  That means that you can run a command on a bunch of files, go out to
>lunch, come back, and check to see which files had errors and what they were.
>In abf, however, the "Image" command forces you to sit there and press the
><return> key several times for each module which has an error.

Although ABF's current implementation is awkward and thus confuses the
issue, "batchability" of inherently interactive tools is a tradeoff.
Would would be the non-interactive mode for MacDraw, and what would
you do with it?

ABF is meant to provide a highly interactive debugging shell suited to
the incremental development of database applications.  It's not meant
as a general purpose tool, or even a tool.  Don't blame it for what it
isn't.  It has proven its value as a productive environment for
building interactive programs that share data among a group of users.

>Another limitation is that there is no way using abf to build a
>version of your code compiled with the '-g' debug option directly
>from the unix command line.  And, there is no way to have abf link
>the code together with the '-lg' option, thus limiting the usefulness
>of dbx.

Not true.  See the notes from the Advanced ABF/4GL seminar.  You seem
to have discovered the basic method yourself:

>(I did that by creating a Bourne shell called ld which calls /bin/ld.
>And by setting my PATH variable to make abf find my ld.)  So now, I
>can at least make use of dbx.

>Does anyone know how .osq files are compiled?

Not documented, to the best of my knowledge, and sure to change in
release 6.

>I am also wondering what algorithm abf uses to figure out which files
>to compile.

The same one make uses: file dates and dependency rules.

-- Jon
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