Re: synApps quadEM build-time code generation

["J. Lewis Muir via Tech-talk" <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

On 10/11, Iain Marcuson via Tech-talk wrote:
> My IOC has quite a few parameters that can be described for our purposes as basically (name, register number, type, bitmask, scale and offset parameter) tuples.  I have a Python script I run before compilation that turns those entries into database files and C++ entries.  I then run the standard `make` to build the IOC.  One possibility I see is for the build process to run that Python script and move the output files as a prelude to the compilation.

A downside of that is that it would make Python a build-time dependency
of quadEM.  The EPICS build system already has Perl as a dependency.  A
Python dependency for quadEM would make it even heavier.  How often do
you have to generate?  If only when something changes, it would seem
better to me to include your Python script for generating databases and
C++ entries in the source tree so that it can be used by a developer
when something changes that requires a regen, but also commit the
generated files so that Python isn't required to build quadEM.

I don't know how complex your Python script is, but another possibility
would be to rewrite it in Perl.  Then you wouldn't be adding a
build-time dependency that isn't already there.

Lewis