coapp-developers team mailing list archive

[Nasser Dassi <nasserd@xxxxxxxxx>]

Brilliant!

- nasser

On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 2:29 PM, Garrett Serack <garretts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

>  Rafael and I have spent a bunch of time over the last several days
> hashing out an idea for the ‘spec’ file format for the *mkSpec* tool.
>
>
>
> The idea with these files, is that they are a coapp-specific, compiler
> independent way of looking at project files that can be used by another tool
> to generate project files (or makefiles, or cmake files, or whatever) for
> compiling with an individual compiler.
>
>
>
> I knew from past experience, that I wanted to separate out the “*What*”
> from the “*How*” a project gets built.
>
>
>
> The “What” is basically the project structure without any real assertions
> as to how the files get assembled into a final project.  This should be
> something that a developer can read that gives them the understanding of
> what goes into a particular target.
>
>
>
> The “How” gives the project file context as to how each individual file is
> used in the final build file.  This affects where it picks up include files,
> what #defines are declared at the command line, etc (basically everything
> you see in the project settings window).
>
>
>
> I spent a lot of time trying to understand how to properly represent this
> data, and then it hits me: split the two types of information into two
> different files, one XML that represents the structure (the “What”) and one
> that represents the properties applied to that (the “How”). XML was not
> appropriate for the second one, but CSS was… so I’ve come up with “Cascading
> Property Sheets” (.cps) which are the essentially the ‘style’ applied to the
> project structure.
>
>
>
> So, mkProject-vc10 takes these two files, it generates a .VCXPROJ project
> file that builds the way that is expected.
>
>
>
> The following is an example of what I’m thinking.
>
>
>
> I’m on #coapp on irc at freenode if ya want to talk about it… ( irc://
> irc.freenode.net/coapp  or http://webchat.freenode.net/ )
>
>
>
> =====[ foo.spec ]========
>
> *<?*xml *?>*
>
> <target propertysheet="build.cps" >
>
>
>
>     <dependency name="zlib" version="*" />
>
>     <dependency name="somelib" version="1.2.3.4" />
>
>
>
>     <group name="source files" id="sourcefiles" >
>
>         <file id="./path/to/foo.c" />
>
>
>
>     </group>
>
>     <group name="header files" id="headerfiles" path="./path/to/">
>
>         <file id="./path/to/foo.h" />
>
>
>
>     </group>
>
>     <group name="resources" id="resources">
>
>         <file id="./path/to/somefile.rc" />
>
>         <file id="./path/to/resources.h" />
>
>         <file id="./path/to/bitmap.bmp" />
>
>
>
>     </group>
>
>     <group name="manifest files" id="manifest">
>
>         <file id="./path/to/foo.exe.xml" />
>
>
>
>     </group>
>
>
>
>     <event condition="prebuild" priority="1">
>
>         <script language="cmd">
>
>             @echo off
>
>             echo this script does something odd.
>
>
>
>         </script>
>
>     </event>
>
>
>
>     <link output="foo.exe" />
>
>
>
> </target>
>
>
>
> ======================
>
>  =====[ foo.cps]========
>
> */* Cascading Property Sheet */*
>
>
>
> */* *
>
> *    Selectors can apply to any node, *
>
> *    and appropriate property styles cascade down to child nodes*
>
> * *
>
> **/*
>
>
>
> *group *{ */*by default, files are not compiled with any tool*/*
>
>     compile-as:none;
>
> }
>
>
>
> *group*[sourcefiles]* *{
>
>     compile-as:c; */* overiding compile-as makes it compile */*
>
>     read-only-string-pooling:on;
>
>     define:X86=1;
>
>     define:HAS_ZLIB;
>
>     include-directory:"c:\\apps\\directory\\include";
>
>     include-directory:"c:\\apps\\zlib\\include";
>
> }
>
>
>
> *group*[resources/id$=".rc"]* *{
>
>     compile-as:resource; */* only compile the .rc files  */*
>
> }
>
>
>
> *file*[./path/to/file.c]* *{
>
>     define:HAS_OTHERLIB;
>
> }
>
>
>
>
>
> ======================
>
>
>
>
>
> [image: Description: fearthecowboy] <http://fearthecowboy.com/>
>
> *Garrett* *Serack* | Microsoft's Open Source Software Developer | *Microsoft
> Corporation
> Office*:(425)706-7939                                       *email*/*
> messenger*: garretts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> *blog*: http://fearthecowboy.com                                      *
> twitter*: @fearthecowboy <http://twitter.com/fearthecowboy>
>
> *I don't make the software you use; I make the software you use better on
> Windows.***
>
>
>
>
>
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