[Scons-dev] The Contrib Repository. [was Adding support for Visual Studio Code workspace generation]

[Dirk Bächle]

Hi,

here are my 2c... ;)

On 28.11.2016 10:36, Russel Winder wrote:
> On Sun, 2016-11-27 at 12:42 -0800, Bill Deegan wrote:
>> Andrew,
>>
>> If it's interesting to you, go ahead and work on it!
>> There's an index of community supported builders in the wiki. Feel
>> free to
>> add your work there (https://bitbucket.org/scons/scons/wiki/ToolsInde
>> x).
>> Or if you like add it to here: https://bitbucket.org/scons/scons-cont
>> rib
>>
>
> This raises the issue of whether we should be thinking about active
> curation of the Contrib repository, and how to manage it.
>
> [...]
>
> So this raises a number of issues.
>
> 1. What is the purpose, aim, and goal of the Contrib repository?

To collect Tools, Config and other snippets...as contributed by users.

> 2. Is it intended as the place where things will be migrated out of the
> SCons core distribution?

No...in the sense that I don't know of any plans to migrate current core tools. It will be more like the place where Tools get ready 
to be migrated "into" the core, once they have proper tests and documentation. A replacement for all the Wiki snippets and, where 
the current maintainers want this, all the single ToolsIndex repos...

> 3. Should it deploy into the running SCons installation or to a
> site_scons/site_tools?

Neither...my idea is that it installs "parallel" to an SCons distro, while SCons' Python search path is patched such that all 
modules in "scons-contrib" get found as if they would lie directly in the "scons" folder.
This might imply that "scons" and "scons-contrib" get released simultaneously, maybe even with the same version number...not sure 
about that yet, there definitely has to follow some discussion about this.

> 4. Is it just for tools?

No...anything that is useful and could be good to have for importing it into an SConstruct/SConscript is allowed and encouraged.

> 5. Should SCons support not-tool add-ins better?

I think that being able to directly import add-ins from the "contrib" repo without any further ado would qualify here, right? ;)

> 6. What is the process for adding things to Contrib?

Creating a pull request.

> 7. What is the mechanism for removing things from Contrib?

ditto ;)

> 8. Is it feasible to move the C, C++, Fortran, D stuff out of the core
> without a total rewrite of the core?

Have we decided to do such a thing...and when exactly did that happen?

> 9. Is anyone thinking about how to do C++ builds with SCons in the
> presence of package managers such as Conan.
>
> In a sense I feel a bit of a fraud contributing here just now. Apart
> from LaTeX builds, and a few small pet projects, I am hardly using
> SCons just now.

Which makes your insights and opinions even more valuable, to me at least. :) Conan is a good example, never heard of it...until 
now. Good to have someone affiliated with the project who is able to track all the "rest of the Internet" for interesting tools and 
technologies. Please don't stop prodding us. :)

Best regards,

Dirk