-----Original Message----- On Behalf Of David Abrahams

"Brian Braatz" <brianb@rmtg.com> writes:

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[Brian Braatz Writes:] My plan (to address this organically): * First off finish my other work :) * then spend the time to really get my head wrapped around bjam\boost build * debug my own build problems- and make careful notes on "what the problems were" * Post-Mortem- build a tool that WOULD have shown me the problem immediately. I.e. (weak example:) if my bjam.exe is the wrong version- then the tool would simply report the version

[David Abrahams Writes:]

Again, shouldn't bjam itself just do this? It would be easy for Boost.Build to know what version of bjam it requires and complain if bjam is not up-to-date.

[Brian Braatz Writes:] Yes. After reviewing your mail and bjam\bulid a bit more- I think I am starting to "see it" (Bjam\Build). My guess is, whatever the final solution ends up being will be something connected at the lower levels to either bjam or build. Also my example was "weak". :)- It's probably easier to talk about specific problems once I have identified the actual CAUSES of (to start with) my problems.

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* share the tool with the rest of the community. * watch the users list for folks having build problems- offer to

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them- use the tool as a proxy for figuring out their problems- in

help this

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way the tool evolves the ability to solve the common problems. OR it becomes clearly proven that this is not possible. (my gut tells me it IS possible) * I am going to save this mail off, and then when I have learned a few things by doing above, I may "re-open" this thread with what I have learned.

Thank you David for a very useful conversation. :)

[David Abrahams Writes:]

Sure thing. I hope it leads to useful tools!

[Brian Braatz Writes:] :)