[Arjen Markus] (5 march 2003) The idea behind the package ''buildtools'', as used in ''Critclf'', is that basically compilers, linkers and other tools for creating software products are command-line driven, take some input and produce some output. In other words,there is nothing special about a compiler on Windows or UNIX. Except of course that they all require a different set of options to consider, use different terminology and so on.

The ''buildtools'' package tries to abstract from that by allowing the user to say:
   * I want to compile this source file
   * I want to link it together with these libraries into that executable.
   * I want to use this compiler on my current platform

This is achieved by:
   * Creating a "tool" or "component" that knows that, for instance, on the current platform the C compiler is called "gcc" and if the user wants a debuggable version, it needs to add the option "-g" to the command-line. 
   * The "tool" is driven by setting options:

   createComponent mycc Linux gcc   ;# C compiler of my choice on Linux
   mycc -source myfile.c -optimise fast
   mycc -defines "MYMACRO=1" -exec 

   * The tools are specified in a small database that is fairly easy to extend (the difficult part is retrieving all necessary options!)
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''[escargo] 5 Mar 2003'' - How does this compare to [bras]?
   
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