Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ulysses!hector!ekrell
From: ekrell@hector.UUCP (Eduardo Krell)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Bugs in the AT&T Toolchest program 'nmake'
Keywords: nmake
Message-ID: <11589@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>
Date: 24 May 89 19:58:47 GMT
References: <1640@internal.Apple.COM> <6561@ardent.UUCP> <11562@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> <6639@ardent.UUCP>
Sender: netnews@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com
Reply-To: ekrell@hector.UUCP (Eduardo Krell)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 30

In article <6639@ardent.UUCP> mac@mrk.ardent.com (Michael McNamara) writes:

>	See above... further, gnu-make supports included makefiles, enabling
>make-depend and cc -M to work.

but this is something that should be automatic. I shouldn't have to
type any additional commands in order for implicit dependencies to
work.

>The only time you need a -I is when you want it to get <sys/reg.h> 
>from /cross/I860/sys/reg.h, or some such, and how can nmake know that? 

With a line like:

.SOURCE.h : /cross/I860

>   Many makes allow superior makes to pass environments to children makes;
>what nmake does can be done this way (although, perhaps not as cleanly). 

No, there are things you can't do by setting environment variables
(like changing the metarules, adding new default rules, etc.)

>Nmake has a complicated additional feature, and costs $$.

These "complicated additional features" are needed in the real world
where vanilla make (and gnu-make) are just not powerful enough.
    
Eduardo Krell                   AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ

UUCP: {att,decvax,ucbvax}!ulysses!ekrell  Internet: ekrell@ulysses.att.com