[SoC] Project Proposal - Rake-style build system

[Brian Rice]

Project outline (cribbed from Keith's proposal):

Translate the ideas of Rake into a Squeak library / facility using  
OSProcess.

Technical details:

Squeak can run scripts through OSProcess [1], but it doesn't have a  
framework for declarative building of various targets that is  
customarily exhibited by Make or Ant. Ruby's Rake [2] demonstrates an  
interesting approach to this problem that could be implemented in  
Squeak readily and used for building and testing automation beyond  
the Squeak image.

Benefits to the student:

The student would gain familiarity with the requirements and logic  
and algorithms involved in a reliable and sensible declarative and  
configurable build system. They would be able to explore this in a  
live-objects environment which could offer opportunities for  
innovation in this area.

Benefits to the community:

This would provide Squeak with a declarative, idempotent build system  
for external files and programs as well as other Squeak images, that  
also integrates well with other Squeak code and libraries. It could  
even offer new facilities for building Squeak images using the  
Installer [3] tool.

Mentor: Brian Rice

Refs:
[1] http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/708
[2] http://rake.rubyforge.org/
[3] http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/Installer

(Honestly, this feels vague and hand-wavey... refinements would be  
welcome!)

--
-Brian
http://briantrice.com

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