Gregor Richards wrote:
> Bill Baxter wrote:

> 
> *whew*!
> 
> OK, I think that I covered these fairly effectively. When I first wrote this doc, I had immediate peer review, but these additions did not, so rewording suggestions are welcome.
> 

...[good additions cut]...

>  > And one comment:
>  > - "The 'set' command sets a setting" -- this not a very helpful
>  > description.
>  > It's not clear why you need 'set'.  It says it's for doing things
>  > 'on-the-fly'.  But what does that mean?  Is
>  >    prebuild = echo "Hi"
>  > not on-the-fly?
> 
> I changed the wording:
> 
> "The 'set' command sets a dsss.conf file setting while DSSS is actually running."
> 
> Better?

Well, it still basically says "'set' sets a setting", which is defining a word by using the word.  It doesn't clarify what you mean by a 'setting'.  That should be explained.  Also, it might help if you explained in the 'set' section more clearly what problem 'set' is designed to solve.

And as for the 'on-the-fly' part, which you changed to "while DSSS is actually running" -- are there other commands that do something when DSSS is not running!?

--bb

Gregor Richards wrote:
> Olli Aalto wrote:
>> Gregor Richards wrote:
>>> Because DSSS' README.software_engineers was pretty bad, I've completely rewritten it from the ground up. It's not yet finished, but it's definitely ready to receive some intensive feedback.
>>>
>>> So please, read
>>> http://svn.dsource.org/projects/dsss/trunk/docs/README.software_engineers 
>>>
>>> and yell at me. All responses welcome.
>>>
>>
>> It would be nice to be able to build and install a project in one go.
>> For example:
>> dsss build install
>> or just
>> dsss install
>> (which would do a build if the target is older than its sources).
>>
>> Also how do I mark a section in dsss.conf to be non-installable?
>> For example I have a test/demo application for a library which I don't want to go to dsss/bin.
>>
>> O.
> 
> Unfortunately, these are both lacks in DSSS, not lacks in its documentation :)
> 
> The current way to make a section non-installable is to simply make it non-default. This is a fairly new feature so it didn't yet make it into the documentation. Note to self: Add it to the documentation :P
> 
> That being said, there should be a better way.
> 
> I've made some tickets:
> http://www.dsource.org/projects/dsss/ticket/105
> http://www.dsource.org/projects/dsss/ticket/106
> 

Thanks for clearing this up. Both are not very critical, more of a convenience type things.

O.

Bill Baxter wrote:
> Gregor Richards wrote:
>> Bill Baxter wrote:
> 
>>
>> *whew*!
>>
>> OK, I think that I covered these fairly effectively. When I first wrote this doc, I had immediate peer review, but these additions did not, so rewording suggestions are welcome.
>>
> 
> ...[good additions cut]...
> 
>>  > And one comment:
>>  > - "The 'set' command sets a setting" -- this not a very helpful
>>  > description.
>>  > It's not clear why you need 'set'.  It says it's for doing things
>>  > 'on-the-fly'.  But what does that mean?  Is
>>  >    prebuild = echo "Hi"
>>  > not on-the-fly?
>>
>> I changed the wording:
>>
>> "The 'set' command sets a dsss.conf file setting while DSSS is actually running."
>>
>> Better?
> 
> Well, it still basically says "'set' sets a setting", which is defining a word by using the word.  It doesn't clarify what you mean by a 'setting'.  That should be explained.  Also, it might help if you explained in the 'set' section more clearly what problem 'set' is designed to solve.

I honestly haven't a clue how to make this more clear. I'm not saying that it's at all clear, just that I don't know how to improve it. What exactly a setting is is described in an above section, so repeating it there wouldn't be helpful. If you can suggest a wording, that would help.

> 
> And as for the 'on-the-fly' part, which you changed to "while DSSS is actually running" -- are there other commands that do something when DSSS is not running!?

No, but there's no other way to set a setting while DSSS is running.

> 
> --bb

 - Gregor Richards

Gregor Richards wrote:
> Bill Baxter wrote:
>> Gregor Richards wrote:
>>> Bill Baxter wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> *whew*!
>>>
>>> OK, I think that I covered these fairly effectively. When I first wrote this doc, I had immediate peer review, but these additions did not, so rewording suggestions are welcome.
>>>
>>
>> ...[good additions cut]...
>>
>>>  > And one comment:
>>>  > - "The 'set' command sets a setting" -- this not a very helpful
>>>  > description.
>>>  > It's not clear why you need 'set'.  It says it's for doing things
>>>  > 'on-the-fly'.  But what does that mean?  Is
>>>  >    prebuild = echo "Hi"
>>>  > not on-the-fly?
>>>
>>> I changed the wording:
>>>
>>> "The 'set' command sets a dsss.conf file setting while DSSS is actually running."
>>>
>>> Better?
>>
>> Well, it still basically says "'set' sets a setting", which is defining a word by using the word.  It doesn't clarify what you mean by a 'setting'.  That should be explained.  Also, it might help if you explained in the 'set' section more clearly what problem 'set' is designed to solve.
> 
> I honestly haven't a clue how to make this more clear. I'm not saying that it's at all clear, just that I don't know how to improve it. What exactly a setting is is described in an above section, so repeating it there wouldn't be helpful. If you can suggest a wording, that would help.

I see what you mean.  Yes the description in the =SETTINGS= section is good.  Maybe the best thing would be to stick in a (See Section =SETTINGS=) after saying that set sets a setting.


>> And as for the 'on-the-fly' part, which you changed to "while DSSS is actually running" -- are there other commands that do something when DSSS is not running!?
> 
> No, but there's no other way to set a setting while DSSS is running.

I don't get what the difference is between saying
  a = Hello
and
  set a Hello

They both seem to set a value while DSSS is running to me.  The main difference seems to be that 'set' can apply to a different section than the one it appears in.


One more question:  Is there some way to set up dsss.conf to build recursively?  For instance in the directory top/ there's a dsss.conf file that invokes top/sub/dsss.conf.  Will a sticking in a [sub] section do that?

--bb