libf2c problem

[Jeffrey A Law]

  In message < 199802100219.VAA04703@pa.engin.umich.edu >you write:
  > Admittedly, I was using a recent snapshot of dejagnu (971222 to be specific),
  > but I forsee dejagnu as becoming a generally useful tool like autoconf and
  > libtool.  Octave already successfully implements it.  Perhaps after a bit of
  > work on dejagnu it will be ready for general use and a berth on ftp.gnu.org
Actually, dejagnu has been on prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu for years.

Unfortunately, the version on prep is quite out of date and not suitable
for use with egcs.

dejagnu is generally useful (I've used it to build testsuites for gcc, gas,
gdb, ld, libstdc++, libio, libg++, a research linker project, and a few
other things I can't remember).

The problem is it needs a fair amount of information to do things like
build and execute programs.  It has to know how to find your compiler,
header files, libraries, linker scripts, startup code, object file converter
(if you are talking to a target board for example), load the program, etc etc.

Putting that information into a generally maintainable form is a nontrivial
project.

On might consider trying to encapsulate some of the compiler, header files,
and library information into some structures similar to the target_board
stuff.  I don't know how well it will work in practice though...

jeff