make and friends was Re: [Coco] CCASM for Linux

[John R. Hogerhuis]

On Mon, 2004-12-13 at 18:53, Willard Goosey wrote:
> >From: KnudsenMJ at aol.com
> >Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 22:24:18 EST
> 
> >I even seem to remember some useful tricks for the C compiler's macro  
> >preprocessor all by itself, on text jobs.  --Mike K.
> 
> Yeah, cpp is a good tool.  And one that tends to get "integrated" so
> you can't do anything but C programs with it. :-( AFAIK the OS-9 C
> compiler is about the only C compiler for 8-bit (or early 16-bit
> micros) that has a seperate preprocessor.
> 
> A lot of the assembly in the linux kernel uses the C preprocessor,
> instead of relying on the assemlber's own macro system (Does GAS even
> have complex macros?)
> 
> I have to admit, though, for non-programming purposes, m4 is a little
> more friendly.  If nothing else, it doesn't insert #line lines into
> its output.
> 

Never used it, but from what I've been able to determine the big
advantage of M4 is that it is smart enough to be able to count. So, for
example you could create an enumerated list of IDs automatically. 

That said I've never needed that advantage so much that I decided to add
a dependency on M4 to the build.

-- John.