Re: Interpreter for old basic programs from the line number era

Auric__ expounded in news:fr963f$2up$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:57:35 GMT,  wrote:
> 
>> On 11 Mrz., 18:21, "Auric__" <not.my.r...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> On Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:20:26 GMT,  wrote:
>>> > On 7 Mrz., 18:12, "Auric__" <not.my.r...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> >> On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:05:46 GMT,  wrote:
>>>
>>> >> (FYI, took a bit over 6 minutes to d/l your 964 kib file.)
>>> > So you actually managed to download it. Did your compile
>>> > succeed? Do you have any comments about Bas7 (or the other
>>> > examples)? I really need any feedback I can get.
>>>
>>> The compile went fine. I had to edit the makefile to point at my
>>> libXll, because the X11 lib dir isn't in $PATH, and isn't the same
>>> as what you have in yours (mine is /usr/X11R6/lib, with links in
>>> /usr/lib/X11 and /usr/X11/lib).
>>
>> Maybe I should add some code to 'make depend' which finds out
>> where the X11 lib is. A ./configure script would probably be
>> the right solution. But until now I have not used ./configure
>> since it works only on unix inspired operating systems.
> 
> Well... 'configure' *might* work under a Cygwin system (never 
> tried)... but then, the vast majority of Windows systems don't have X 
> anyway... or you could just include a note in README to the effect of 
> "edit 'makefile' to include your X11 lib dir in the 'LIB' variable".

Configure works well on Cygwin, and it even works under MSYS 
for MINGW builds (I've done that recently). I need to do
this for my current BDB-BASIC project, but I've been
procrastinating. It does take a fair amount of up front
tweaking to get it right, but once in place, it works
rather well. The only real criticisms I have of the 
autoconf implementation is that:

 - it could use a/better "how to get started"
   guide, that goes beyond stupid simple projects

 - more guidance for Makefile.am could be provided
   (it doesn't seem to handle unusual cases well,
   like compiling OpenCobol modules etc.)

 - sometimes it drags too much in, making the
   configuration process much too long (especially
   on older equipment).

The first and last points are the main reasons I
have dragged my feet on this for the current
project.

But in today's world, ./configure is pretty much
a necessity, unless you want to coach the user
through all of the manual tweaks he'll need to
do for his platform (which usually equates to
an unsuccessful build).

Warren

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