platform dependent configuration files

[Matthias Kupfer]

HI,

recently I had to alter some inf-files for fixing a bug. At present we have 
for each platform (i386, arm, amd64) separate files, which are hard to 
maintain because of some identical, that aren't platform dependent. Therefore 
I suggest the following change and I will write an example and the necessary 
tool:
- combine all platforms to one file and work with special block markers
- block markers work like filters, empty markers means all platforms otherwise 
the platforms limited to are given in comma separated lists
- we have to maintain only one single file and the alteration is minimal, 
because the marker is a simple (syntactically comment) line 
like ";#platform_a,platform_b#" or ";##"
- the needed file is extracted at build time, always up-to-date and shipped in 
the same way as present

General remark: we have to make some efforts to bring (or at least to keep) 
the project in understandable and maintanable state. We have to use and 
introduce tools to reduce needless efforts resulted by managing multiple 
similar files which could be better generated without failures (that people 
tends to do). This and only this is my intention for this suggestion.

Request for comments - other ways or changes with same goal are welcome

Matthias

-- 
Matthias Kupfer          phone [phone]
Wilhelm-Firl-Straße 21   mobile [phone]
09122 Chemnitz, Germany

[Timo Kreuzer]

I second that. What about simply using the C preprocessor?

Regards, Timo

Matthias Kupfer wrote:
>   HI,
>
>  recently I had to alter some inf-files for fixing a bug. At present we have 
>  for each platform (i386, arm, amd64) separate files, which are hard to 
>  maintain because of some identical, that aren't platform dependent. Therefore 
>  I suggest the following change and I will write an example and the necessary 
>  tool:
>  - combine all platforms to one file and work with special block markers
>  - block markers work like filters, empty markers means all platforms otherwise 
>  the platforms limited to are given in comma separated lists
>  - we have to maintain only one single file and the alteration is minimal, 
>  because the marker is a simple (syntactically comment) line 
>  like ";#platform_a,platform_b#" or ";##"
>  - the needed file is extracted at build time, always up-to-date and shipped in 
>  the same way as present
>
>  General remark: we have to make some efforts to bring (or at least to keep) 
>  the project in understandable and maintanable state. We have to use and 
>  introduce tools to reduce needless efforts resulted by managing multiple 
>  similar files which could be better generated without failures (that people 
>  tends to do). This and only this is my intention for this suggestion.
>
>  Request for comments - other ways or changes with same goal are welcome
>
>  Matthias
>
>