[ros-dev] Regarding new rbuild module type "ElfExecutable"

[art yerkes]

On Tue, 4 Sep 2007 14:05:24 +0200
"Marc Piulachs" <marc.piulachs at codexchange.net> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have been reviewing last changes introduced in rbuild to support the
> powerpc version and I don't understand the new module type "ElfExecutable".
> Can anyone explain me why is it necessary?
> 
> Looking at the source code I can see that this module type is really similar
> to the "BootLoader" module type (they produce the boot executable) since
> rbuild already knows the architecture being build I can't see the difference
> between both
> 
> Also , from my point of view the .rbuild files should contain only abstract
> information about the build process and not particular one about an
> architecture or a format type to be used , that's rbuild.exe job , produce
> the apropiate makefile using all the information available.

Rbuild definately encodes too much information inside it, and leaves
too little for configuration.  Also, most of the modules don't use
the ARCH setting, so I was reluctant to introduce an architecture
switch in rbuild.  

I wouldn't be opposed to removing ElfExecutable if you'd help me sort
out how rbuild *should* work.  

I'd personally like to see hardcoded strings pulled out into 
properties and the 'if' code made more uniform.  Right now, each tag
type needs to be made separately conditionable.

I think that if we made a few things more data-oriented, then rbuild
would become much easier to adapt.
-- 
"Ask Bill why the string in function 9 is terminated by a dollar sign. Ask him, because he can't answer. Only I know that".
- Gary Kildall