[Scons-dev] SCons doesn't bootstrap without libxml2

[Dirk Bächle]

On 19.02.2014 06:15, Bill Deegan wrote:

> Anatoly,

>

> bootstrap.py is not meant to be run by users, only developers.

>

> -Bill

>


I'd even go one step further and say: it's primarily meant to be run by 
release managers.

It's okay if you take on this role for yourself as a developer while 
you're hacking away with things, but as far as I know there is nowhere 
documented that this is actually required from you. Nobody forces you 
now or has forced you in the past, to run this additional step, right?
Or is it your understanding that every developer is required to run the 
full build scenario?

I can understand that you are a little confused, and maybe even 
frustrated, because suddenly things that seemed to work for you show a 
different behaviour. But that's what happens. Time goes by and things 
change. And we want some changes for the SCons project, to make it 
better, right?
And that's what we did, we made SCons better such that you don't have to 
write MAN pages by hand anymore for example. As a consequence of this, 
you simply don't get away anymore with what you did in the past: running 
only half of the packaging test without the documentation.
But this is also a change to the better side and not meant to be against 
you personally. It reduces the work load for the actual release managers 
because errors in the documentation syntax are revealed much earlier in 
the development process.

And you can still get back to your old routine and workflow and help the 
project even more and better than before, if you decide to take that 
little step and install the libxml2 or lxml Python bindings.
And if you decide to not install it, and simply skip the full packaging 
build, that'll be fine with everyone too...and you can save even more of 
your time and invest it in development itself.

Dirk