[glade--]Re: No rule to make target `1.c', needed by `1.o'. Stop.

[Baurjan Ismagulov <ibr ata cs hun edu tr>]

Hello,

On Mon, Sep 02, 2002 at 01:19:14AM +0300, Baurjan Ismagulov wrote:
> src/Makefile.am:7: bad macro name `__SOURCES'
> src/Makefile.am:18: bad macro name `__LDADD'
> src/Makefile.am:7: invalid unused variable name: `__SOURCES'
> src/Makefile.am:18: invalid unused variable name: `__LDADD'

I found out that these errors were the cause of the problem. The project
name consisted of a single digit, and it was replaced with an
underscore, which, in turn, caused automake to fail. So I have some
suggestions:

1. Why the project name is converted with ToCIdentifier? As far as I
   could see, it is not referenced in the sources.

   The automake variable of the form "1_SOURCES" might not be valid
   (automake complains about it), but at least the project does compile.
   And __SOURCES isn't a valid name, either; besides, it makes the build
   impossible. FWIW, glade2's C backend allows such names.

   I consider the current behaviour of glade-- a design bug. I think it
   should either leave the name untouched in Makefile.am, or refuse to
   produce the source due to the project name considered invalid. In any
   case, sources known to be unbuildable in advance should not be
   silently generated.

2. I think any person new to auto* tools gets frustrated when an
   automated toolchain fails with a cryptic message. In the example
   above, one might not know that these lines are produced by automake.
   To find that out one should look into autogen.sh and execute each
   command separately, which would have been quite a time-consuming task
   if autogen script was somewhat more complicated. I found "running
   automake..." messages in the autogen generated by glade2 useful. I
   think it would save some people's time if these are added to glade--,
   too.

I'd like to know The Developers' opinion regarding these issues. Please
let me know if you think I can help (with patches).

With kind regards,
Baurjan.

P.S. Please cc.