[Scummvm-devel] Ports and their custom build systems. Do we need them?

[Max Horn]

Hi Max,

thanks for clearing that up. I apologize for apparently  
misrepresenting some things about the PS2 port, it certainly wasn't my  
intention to make it resp. you look bad, not at all. I think you are  
doing a fine job, and enjoy working with you (and you have that cute  
name.... :).

Thus: Sorry!

Nevertheless, I still think that it would be good to reduce the uses  
of custom build systems, and instead improving the primary one.


Also, I'd like to urge all porters to try to make it clearer why their  
port build in a certain way. No matter whether it is using a custom  
Makefile or the primary build system. It is often unclear why porters  
do certain things in their custom build systems in a certain way (why  
is that engine en-/disabled? why is that file compiled with a  
different optimization? why ). And whether it is intentionally, or by  
mistake.

E.g. I am right now wondering why BeOS, Haiku and AmigaOS typedef  
uint32 as long and not int (see configure). I added corresponding  
FIXME comments which ask for a clarification. I vaguely recall that at  
some point we had to change this for some reason or another, but it's  
now totally unclear. Since those ports are the only ones which need a  
type different from what we autodetect, I'd like to at least document  
why that is so (or maybe it isn't?).

Or why do some ports use all the USE_ARM_* flags, and some only use a  
subset? I.e. our ARM Linux ports don't use USE_ARM_GFX_ASM,  
USE_ARM_COSTUME_ASM and USE_ARM_SCALER_ASM -- same for the iPhone  
port, BTW. Are those ARM versions just not suitable for these?


Cheers,
Max