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19:46:22
attila_lendvai
drmeister, ideally the build algorithm should be as close to being a pure function as possible (no side effects). changing the state on the filesystem (in a non-additive way) goes against that about as much as it is possible.
19:47:59
attila_lendvai
but in general: the less sideffects you make, the less time you will spend debugging. sometimes the tradeoffs turn around, and eventually a little sideffect makes things simpler, or enables essential optimizations, but that should only added as a conscious decision.
19:50:12
drmeister
Ok - but I don't think that's what's going on here - rename_executable(...) is taking one string and returning another making a substitution. The waf system then copies the file with the original name to the one with the new name. A symbolic link would be better.
20:44:46
attila_lendvai
drmeister, oh, i see. it's merely a utility fn that returns a new name based on an old one, which is fine, except its has misled me. what should be avoided like fire is changing global state, e.g. renaming stuff on the filesystem.