[Visualpython-users] patch for Makefile

Attached is a patch for the Makefile.  The first difference is that
the clean target wasn't working for me.  "rm *.{o,d}" wasn't removing
the files, so I changed it to "rm *.o *.d".

I also made a couple of changes that will reduce the overhead of the
build process.  Unlike a shell script, a Makefile works by textual
substitution.  So, a line like
    GTK_INCLUDES = `gtk-config --cflags gtk gthread`
doesn't execute gtk-config but simply puts that whole string in a
variable.  When this variable is expanded in a shell command (when gcc
is run) _then_ the shell creates the subshell to run gtk-config in.
This means that gtk-config is run once for every file that is
compiled.  I changed this to instead run the script in a subshell once
and use the result repeatedly.

The other change restricts the Makefile to work only with GNU make
(but since 'gcc' and 'g++' are explicitly used I don't think this is a
problem).  The change is the ":=" operator.  As stated above, make
operates on textual substitution.  Thus lines like :
    VAR=value
    VAR2=${VAR}
VAR2 gets the value "${VAR}".  ${VAR} isn't expanded until ${VAR2} is
expanded.  Then it is expanded every time ${VAR2} is expanded.  The
":=" operator expands the string immediately and binds that result to
VAR2.  This reduces the number of lookups and expansions that make has
to do.

For a project as small as vpython is right now these changes are
likely to be insignificant.


The final change I made was to make PYTHON_INCLUDES work for my
system.  (I don't expect that to be included in cvs, but I don't want
to butcher the patch so that it doesn't work :-))  I thought there was
a way to override this in the environment without changing the
Makefile, but it didn't work when/how I tried it.

HAND,
-D

PS.  Is there a -dev list?  I didn't see one.

-- 

Pleasant words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
        Proverbs 16:24