[Info-vax] MMK v. me, old and new problems.

[Tim E. Sneddon]

Steven Schweda wrote:
>>       http://antinode.info/ftp/mmk/mmk_4_1_1_mods.zip
>>
>> No bets, and complaints are always welcome, but it seems to do
>> what I wanted done.
> 
>    At least it did until I tried building it on a VAX.
> 
>       #define __NEW_STARLET
>       #include <tpadef.h>
> 
> That was less (VAX-) portable than it might have been.
> 
>    For an overlay kit which restores some VAX compatibility:
> 
>       http://antinode.info/ftp/mmk/mmk_4_1_1_mods_2.zip
> 
> Everything in the first one is in this one, too.  Sigh.

I have been away from the computer for a while, taking care of
the family and things...

As far as maintenance for MMK, I didn't see anyone else offer
anything, so I set up the site at Kednos (along with MX).  The
4.1 kit you found is a preliminary release for someone to test
the /CASE_SENSITIVE qualifier.  Another OpenVMS open source
contributor had developed some patches they called MMKcs which
I rolled in.  I have also added a /EXTENDED_SYNTAX qualifier to
bring MMK into line with MMS.  It offers two keywords, GNU and
MMS.  The GNU keyword adds processing for some of the GNU make
keywords and MMS adds all sorts of stuff, like .IF, .AND, .OR
and a bunch of other things.

I was meant to make a release ages ago, but got held up with
other work.  I am still in the process of re-writing the
symbol resolver that adds all of the built-in functions found
in MMS, like $(SUBST ..), $(ORIGIN ...), etc.  I have even added
the MMSDESCRIPTION_FILE macro, although I guess some of this
stuff hasn't made it into the release on the website.  A
VMSINSTAL kit is also on the list of things to do.  The symbol
code has also undergone some work.  There is also now support
for all the different classes of symbols found in MMS.

As for support, there is a mailing list with, at the moment
probably three addresses.  There hasn't been much in the way
of traffic (I certainly haven't noticed anything, nor sent
anything, yet).

I have an entry on the todo list setting up a Mercurial
repository too.  This requires me to finish some work on the
Python interpreter to get SSH support up and running properly.

As you can imagine, this only gets done in my spare time, so
it's getting there, but slowly.  I will look at your patch
and add the VAX stuff in.  I'll also prepare a release so
people can get a taste for some of the yummy new features.

I welcome anyone who is interested in adding more functionality
or who wants to be involved.  Please post to the mailing list,
maybe we'll crack one message this month (our first :-).

Tim.