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authorSteven Knight <knight@baldmt.com>2007-08-17 03:17:04 (GMT)
committerSteven Knight <knight@baldmt.com>2007-08-17 03:17:04 (GMT)
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tree7bc281e44fe45cae35656e0e457fef8f308fbb7b /doc/python10/intro.xml
parent5b4b4c6e5384712ab1835bdcf8beea09611b6e62 (diff)
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Merged revisions 2136-2200,2202-2290,2292-2301 via svnmerge from
http://scons.tigris.org/svn/scons/branches/core ........ r2145 | stevenknight | 2007-07-17 09:15:12 -0500 (Tue, 17 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Don't put null strings (from variable expansion) in a path list. (They get turned into the current directory on later expansion.) ........ r2146 | stevenknight | 2007-07-17 10:47:39 -0500 (Tue, 17 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Add support for optional arguments on command-line long options by specifying nargs='?'. ........ r2149 | stevenknight | 2007-07-17 15:22:24 -0500 (Tue, 17 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Remove left-over Optik mentions. ........ r2150 | stevenknight | 2007-07-17 15:39:34 -0500 (Tue, 17 Jul 2007) | 4 lines Add a $SWIGPATH variable for finding SWIG dependencies, with $SWIGINC{PREFIX,SUFFIX} for adding them to the command line. ........ r2154 | stevenknight | 2007-07-18 20:05:31 -0500 (Wed, 18 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Fix variable misspellings in the doc added for $SWIGOUTPUT. ........ r2155 | stevenknight | 2007-07-18 20:07:28 -0500 (Wed, 18 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Add the Python eggs info file to the RPM packaging build. ........ r2156 | stevenknight | 2007-07-18 20:15:08 -0500 (Wed, 18 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Convert documentation from DocBook SGML to XML. ........ r2158 | stevenknight | 2007-07-19 17:16:19 -0500 (Thu, 19 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Conditionally add the .egg-info the RPM file list only if the distutils in the version of Python that rpmbuild will execute knows about them. ........ r2161 | stevenknight | 2007-07-19 19:12:29 -0500 (Thu, 19 Jul 2007) | 5 lines Capture a test case (contributed by Tilo Prutz) where instantiation of a private class causes javac to generate an additional anonymous inner class file. (No solution yet, but there's no sense throwing away the preparatory work.) ........ r2162 | stevenknight | 2007-07-20 11:29:56 -0500 (Fri, 20 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Support passing a list of .java files as source to the Java() builder. (Leanid Nazdrynau) ........ r2163 | garyo | 2007-07-20 12:00:35 -0500 (Fri, 20 Jul 2007) | 1 line Fixed cut-n-paste error in Touch factory method doc in users guide. ........ r2167 | stevenknight | 2007-07-21 22:59:40 -0500 (Sat, 21 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Don't execute the SWIGOUTDIR test if swig isn't installed. ........ r2168 | stevenknight | 2007-07-21 23:14:17 -0500 (Sat, 21 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Fix the test's ability to run under a path name containing spaces. ........ r2171 | stevenknight | 2007-07-24 15:54:41 -0500 (Tue, 24 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Handle white space in key file names in the packaging build. ........ r2172 | stevenknight | 2007-07-24 21:41:15 -0500 (Tue, 24 Jul 2007) | 2 lines More efficient copying of construction environments. ........ r2173 | stevenknight | 2007-07-25 10:56:02 -0500 (Wed, 25 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Update the SCons build for Subversion and general clean-up. ........ r2174 | stevenknight | 2007-07-25 11:35:16 -0500 (Wed, 25 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Suppress the [brackets] around a node in the --tree=prune output if the node is a source. ........ r2175 | stevenknight | 2007-07-25 12:52:18 -0500 (Wed, 25 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Commonize the skip_test() method and make its behavior configurable via a TESTCOMMON_PASS_SKIPS environment variable. ........ r2178 | stevenknight | 2007-07-25 21:43:47 -0500 (Wed, 25 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Add $JAVACLASSPATH and $JAVASOURCEPATH construction variables. (Leanid Nazdrynau) ........ r2182 | stevenknight | 2007-07-30 12:10:20 -0500 (Mon, 30 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Refactor Builder suffix-adjusting into its own method, so we can (potentially) re-use it for Builders with attached source Builders. ........ r2183 | stevenknight | 2007-07-30 14:51:53 -0500 (Mon, 30 Jul 2007) | 2 lines More efficient source-builder suffix matching. ........ r2184 | stevenknight | 2007-07-30 16:01:42 -0500 (Mon, 30 Jul 2007) | 4 lines Encapsulate initialization of the default FS object by an accessor function in SCons.Node.FS. (This also gets rid of an unnecessary reference to SCons.Node.FS.default_fs in the LaTeX scanner.) ........ r2193 | stevenknight | 2007-07-30 18:24:07 -0500 (Mon, 30 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Fix interpretation of source arguments that have no suffix when the called Builder has both a src_suffix and a src_builder. ........ r2194 | stevenknight | 2007-07-31 10:25:31 -0500 (Tue, 31 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Increase the number of tries for random output from three to ten. ........ r2195 | stevenknight | 2007-07-31 10:52:28 -0500 (Tue, 31 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Skip the test gracefully if the zipfile module can't read the file it just wrote (which is the case for Python 2.1 on 64-bit systems). ........ r2196 | stevenknight | 2007-07-31 13:06:21 -0500 (Tue, 31 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Move the "import zipfile" so it doesn't fail on Python <= 2.0. ........ r2197 | stevenknight | 2007-07-31 14:51:50 -0500 (Tue, 31 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Commonize initialization of the various Java builders so they can be hooked up into a multi-stage Builder chain. (Leanid Nazdrynau) ........ r2198 | stevenknight | 2007-07-31 16:15:18 -0500 (Tue, 31 Jul 2007) | 3 lines Fix use of ${TARGET.dir} and ${SOURCE.dir} expansions in $FORTRANMODDIR $JARCHDIR, $JARFLAGS, $LEXFLAGS, $SWIGFLAGS, $SWIGOUTDIR and $YACCFLAGS. ........ r2199 | stevenknight | 2007-07-31 16:25:48 -0500 (Tue, 31 Jul 2007) | 2 lines Remove left-over Trace() call. ........ r2202 | stevenknight | 2007-08-01 12:31:48 -0500 (Wed, 01 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Bail out via test.skip_test() if wix ("candle") isn't found. Put the main body of code flush left instead of under an if: block. ........ r2203 | stevenknight | 2007-08-01 15:35:55 -0500 (Wed, 01 Aug 2007) | 5 lines Fix Tool.packaging.rpm.package() so it doesn't always overwrite $RPMFLAGS with -ta. Set --buildroot in RPM packaging tests so they don't overwrite each other when run simultaneously. ........ r2204 | stevenknight | 2007-08-01 15:37:36 -0500 (Wed, 01 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Fix a nested scope issue with the internal build_sources() function. ........ r2205 | stevenknight | 2007-08-01 15:46:08 -0500 (Wed, 01 Aug 2007) | 5 lines Normalize (X out) the CreationDate field inside embedded, compressed PostScript streams within the generated PDF files. Also normalize preceding Length field, since compression length is affected by different patterns of input, including the variable CreationDate value. ........ r2211 | stevenknight | 2007-08-02 08:52:06 -0500 (Thu, 02 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Add the new modules from branches/packaging to the SCons packaging build. ........ r2212 | stevenknight | 2007-08-02 19:59:01 -0500 (Thu, 02 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Fix the JAVACLASSPATH test when javah isn't on the default $PATH. ........ r2214 | stevenknight | 2007-08-03 15:05:21 -0500 (Fri, 03 Aug 2007) | 4 lines Hook up the Java builders into a multi-step chain underneath a Java() pseudo-builder (wrapper) that examines its arguments and calls the appropriate underlying file-or-dir builder. ........ r2215 | stevenknight | 2007-08-03 15:49:58 -0500 (Fri, 03 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Fix for old Python versions: use apply() instead of *args, **kw. ........ r2216 | stevenknight | 2007-08-03 16:49:31 -0500 (Fri, 03 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Hook up the SWIG builder as a source builder for .java files. ........ r2217 | stevenknight | 2007-08-03 17:28:19 -0500 (Fri, 03 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Don't use .endswith(), which didn't appear until later Python versions. ........ r2218 | stevenknight | 2007-08-03 17:29:38 -0500 (Fri, 03 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Replace tabs with spaces. ........ r2219 | stevenknight | 2007-08-04 08:06:23 -0500 (Sat, 04 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Initialize a loop-invariant lambda for matching .java suffixes outside the loop. ........ r2220 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 15:06:13 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Refactor parallel class-generation loops into one. ........ r2221 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 16:04:06 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 5 lines Have the Java multi-step builder test actually check for generated files, and fix the generation of .java and .class file names, and interaction with the SWIG builder, so that the files are generated in the correct place. ........ r2222 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 16:45:05 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Fix dependencies on SWIG-generated .java files so they don't have to be built in multiple passes. ........ r2226 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 18:00:22 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Fix SWIG when used with BuildDir(). ........ r2227 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 22:15:55 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 5 lines User's guide updates: - Make the multiple files example match its text. - Expand a truncated sentence about being able to use Python function actions in the Command() Builder. ........ r2228 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 23:25:18 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Don't generate an error if a #include file matches a same-named directory in $CPPPATH (or $FORTRANPATH, etc.). ........ r2229 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 23:40:00 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Fix a code example. (Gary Oberbrunner) ........ r2230 | stevenknight | 2007-08-08 00:05:43 -0500 (Wed, 08 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Capture a test case to make sure AddPostAction() doesn't interfere with normal linking. (Matt Doar, Gary Oberbrunner) ........ r2233 | stevenknight | 2007-08-08 14:15:44 -0500 (Wed, 08 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Fix documentation typo in a construction variable cross-reference. ........ r2234 | stevenknight | 2007-08-08 17:03:25 -0500 (Wed, 08 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Changes to SCons packaging to support checkpoint releases. ........ r2235 | stevenknight | 2007-08-09 10:10:01 -0500 (Thu, 09 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Sidestep false negatives on heavily loaded systems. ........ r2236 | garyo | 2007-08-09 11:16:26 -0500 (Thu, 09 Aug 2007) | 1 line Allow unpackaged files (e.g. *.pyo) to exist in the build dir without being packaged in the RPM. Without this, on some systems the rpmbuild may error out. ........ r2237 | stevenknight | 2007-08-09 11:27:56 -0500 (Thu, 09 Aug 2007) | 5 lines Fix test/SWIG/build-dir.py so it works on old Python versions without distutils.sysconfig. Instead of just cutting-and-pasting initialization code from other SWIG tests, centralize it in some new TestSCons methods. ........ r2238 | garyo | 2007-08-09 11:30:58 -0500 (Thu, 09 Aug 2007) | 1 line Use docbook 4.3 instead of 4.4 for the XML doctype since some older(?) jade parsers can't handle new 4-byte Unicode chars in the 4.4 version of isogrk4.ent. ........ r2240 | stevenknight | 2007-08-09 16:35:06 -0500 (Thu, 09 Aug 2007) | 2 lines User's Guide updates (post packaging changes). ........ r2243 | stevenknight | 2007-08-10 10:31:51 -0500 (Fri, 10 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Fix the User's Guide build to use openjade, and to accomodate a change in the name of the main generated file (book1.html => index.html). ........ r2245 | stevenknight | 2007-08-10 11:09:16 -0500 (Fri, 10 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Update the {CHANGES,RELEASE}.txt datestamp lines. ........ r2253 | stevenknight | 2007-08-10 16:21:54 -0500 (Fri, 10 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Fix the wix Tool module's ability to handle null entries in $PATH. ........ r2261 | stevenknight | 2007-08-11 23:08:12 -0500 (Sat, 11 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Remove unnecessary files (.svnt/*, .{ae,cvs}ignore, www/*) from the scons-src packages. ........ r2262 | stevenknight | 2007-08-11 23:24:49 -0500 (Sat, 11 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Add missing __revision__ lines. ........ r2263 | stevenknight | 2007-08-11 23:33:42 -0500 (Sat, 11 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Skip the test if the MANIFEST file hasn't been built. ........ r2264 | stevenknight | 2007-08-11 23:36:30 -0500 (Sat, 11 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Add recent compatibility modules to the relevant exceptions lists. ........ r2265 | stevenknight | 2007-08-11 23:39:00 -0500 (Sat, 11 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Update __VERSION__ strings in the QMTest/*.py modules, so that packaging tests (src/test_*.py) will pass after builds of checkpoint releases. ........ r2266 | stevenknight | 2007-08-12 07:36:19 -0500 (Sun, 12 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Add a comment about why we construct the __VERSION__ string at run time. ........ r2267 | stevenknight | 2007-08-12 07:42:30 -0500 (Sun, 12 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Avoid reading the MANIFEST file twice. (Courtesy review by Greg Noel.) ........ r2268 | stevenknight | 2007-08-12 08:14:53 -0500 (Sun, 12 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Shift Install() and InstallAs() from being documented as functions to being documented as Builders. ........ r2269 | garyo | 2007-08-13 08:49:52 -0500 (Mon, 13 Aug 2007) | 1 line Tests: Skip some more Java tests if javac is not installed on the test machine so they don't get marked as failing. ........ r2270 | garyo | 2007-08-13 11:09:39 -0500 (Mon, 13 Aug 2007) | 1 line Fixed typo in test (shows up on non-Linux platforms). ........ r2271 | garyo | 2007-08-13 14:09:05 -0500 (Mon, 13 Aug 2007) | 4 lines Test portability fixes for Darwin/OSX and IRIX. This does not make all the tests pass on those OSes, but it takes care of some of the more obvious errors that I have time for right now. More to come. ........ r2272 | stevenknight | 2007-08-13 15:33:29 -0500 (Mon, 13 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Tab => space fix. ........ r2273 | stevenknight | 2007-08-13 15:33:52 -0500 (Mon, 13 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Test for swig, too, which is used to build from the .i file. ........ r2277 | garyo | 2007-08-14 10:40:00 -0500 (Tue, 14 Aug 2007) | 8 lines Test portability on IRIX: test/Actions/pre-post creates target file before building target, then IRIX CC does not chmod +x afterwards. I think this change is safe on all OSes. test/AS/ml.py: I think this is only supposed to be run on win32 (not skipped only on win32); the sense of the skip test was backwards. ........ r2278 | stevenknight | 2007-08-14 11:04:40 -0500 (Tue, 14 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Add -tt when running tests, to catch inconsistent tab usage. ........ r2279 | stevenknight | 2007-08-14 14:00:43 -0500 (Tue, 14 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Minor refactor of logic in File.retrieve_from_cache(). ........ r2280 | stevenknight | 2007-08-15 01:11:40 -0500 (Wed, 15 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Refactor CacheDir support into its own module. ........ r2281 | stevenknight | 2007-08-15 07:24:51 -0500 (Wed, 15 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Move the cachepath() method from FS.File to the CacheDir class. ........ r2282 | stevenknight | 2007-08-15 08:31:34 -0500 (Wed, 15 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Python 1.5.2 fix in the new Null class. ........ r2283 | stevenknight | 2007-08-15 10:45:53 -0500 (Wed, 15 Aug 2007) | 5 lines Refactor CacheDir unit tests to: - restore functionality that was dropped in the transition; - commonize creation of test Nodes and other (mock) objects - separate CacheDir tests from tests of CacheDir through Node.FS.File. ........ r2284 | stevenknight | 2007-08-15 11:46:38 -0500 (Wed, 15 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Replace the Executor.Null.NullEnvironment object with a real Null object, so it will absorb the CacheDir method calls as well. ........ r2285 | stevenknight | 2007-08-15 11:52:57 -0500 (Wed, 15 Aug 2007) | 5 lines Add a get_CacheDir() method to a construction environment, which will be used to fetch per-environment CacheDir specifications. (Right now all calls to it still just return the one attached to underlying default FS object.) ........ r2286 | stevenknight | 2007-08-15 15:15:46 -0500 (Wed, 15 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Support per-construction-environment configuration of CacheDir(). ........ r2287 | stevenknight | 2007-08-15 15:33:04 -0500 (Wed, 15 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Move the tests of CacheDir()-related command-line options into test/CacheDir. ........ r2293 | stevenknight | 2007-08-16 11:14:49 -0500 (Thu, 16 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Add the Package() builder description to the documentation build, fixing the XML so that it will build. ........ r2294 | stevenknight | 2007-08-16 12:51:19 -0500 (Thu, 16 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Reorganize packaging documentation: alphabetize the variable definitions (and function names), document Tag() as a function, not a builder. ........ r2296 | stevenknight | 2007-08-16 12:55:01 -0500 (Thu, 16 Aug 2007) | 2 lines Add a build command. ........ r2300 | stevenknight | 2007-08-16 16:49:13 -0500 (Thu, 16 Aug 2007) | 2 lines First cut at documenting packaging variables. ........ r2301 | stevenknight | 2007-08-16 16:51:21 -0500 (Thu, 16 Aug 2007) | 3 lines Construct the .src.rpm and .arch.rpm file names independnetly, not by trying to massage one into the other. ........
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+<para>
+
+ More than twenty years after its creation, the classic UNIX &Make;
+ utility and its descendants are still the dominant way in which
+ software is built. &Make; has maintained this position despite the
+ fact that the intervening years have revealed many
+ shortcomings of the &Make; model for building software:
+
+</para>
+
+<itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+
+ The use of timestamps to decide when a file has been updated is
+ imprecise and prone to error, especially across distributed file
+ systems such as NFS.
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+
+ Builds of typical large software systems still take hours, if not
+ days, despite the tremendous advances in CPU and disk speeds over
+ recent years.
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+
+ &Make; maintains static definitions of dependencies in its
+ &Makefiles;. Much effort has been put into
+ utilities (<application>mkdepend</application>, <application>gcc
+ -M</application>) and schemes (<filename>Makefile.d</filename>
+ files) to try to keep &Makefile; dependencies up-to-date,
+ but these only confirm that &Make;'s static dependencies are
+ inherently fragile.
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+
+ The standard recursive use of &Make; for build hierarchies leads
+ to incomplete dependency graphs, which must be overcome by
+ manually changing the order in which directories are built, or
+ through the use of multiple build passes.
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+</itemizedlist>
+
+<para>
+
+ One need only look at the plethora of helper and wrapper utilities
+ (automake, easymake, imake, jmake, makeLib, maketool, mkmed, shake,
+ SMake, TMAKE) and complete alternatives to &Make; (Ant, bake, bau,
+ bras, Cake, Cons, Cook, Jam, jmk, jus, makeme, mash, MK, nmake, Odin,
+ VMake) that have been created over the years to realize that vanilla
+ &Make; is not satisfying everyone's build requirements. So why Yet
+ Another build tool?
+
+</para>
+
+<section>
+ <title>Enter Software Carpentry</title>
+
+ <para>
+
+ Most of the build tools just mentioned
+ were written by programmers and for
+ programmers. The fact that most programmer-friendly
+ utilities do a poor job of fulfilling the needs
+ of non-programmers prompted Greg Wilson to
+ organize the Software Carpentry competition in January 2000.
+ Software Carpentry was an
+ open design contest with the express goal of producing a set of
+ next-generation utilities, including a build tool, that would be
+ accessible
+ not only to
+ programmers
+ but also to computer <emphasis>users</emphasis>
+ such as physical scientists.
+
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+
+ The key to this usability would be that all of
+ these utilities, including the build tool, would be
+ written in Python.
+ This provided the catalyst for actually
+ pursuing an idea
+ that had been floating around one of the more
+ intriguing &Make; alternatives,
+ a Perl utility called &Cons;.
+ What if the friendlier syntax of Python
+ could be married to the
+ architectural advantages of &Cons;?
+
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+
+ The resulting merged design, at that time named &ScCons;,
+ won the Software Carpentry build tool competition. CodeSourcery (by
+ then the administrators of the competition) ultimately decided not to
+ fund development of the build tool, but the seed had been planted and the
+ design had taken root.
+
+ </para>
+
+</section>
+
+<section>
+ <title>Cons</title>
+
+ <para>
+
+ It helps to know something about &Cons;.
+ &Cons; was first released in 1996 by Bob Sidebotham,
+ then an employee of Fore Systems,
+ and it has a number of
+ distinctive features that set it apart from most &Make;-alikes:
+
+ </para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+
+ &Cons; "configuration files" are not Yet Another
+ invented mini-language, but are actually <emphasis>Perl
+ scripts</emphasis>, which means the full power and flexibility of
+ a real scripting language can be applied to build problems.
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+
+ &Cons; builds everything from a single process at the top of the
+ source tree, with a global view of the dependencies.
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+
+ &Cons; scans files automatically for dependencies such as
+ files specified on <literal>#include</literal> lines.
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+
+ &Cons; decides if a file was out-of-date by using MD5 checksums of
+ the contents of files, not timestamps.
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>
+
+ Despite all of these intriguing architectural features, the great
+ strength of &Cons;&mdash;being written in Perl&mdash;was also one of
+ its weaknesses, turning away many potential users due to the
+ (real or perceived) steep learning curve of Perl.
+
+ </para>
+
+</section>
+
+<section>
+ <title>&SCons;</title>
+
+ <para>
+
+ Through the &ScCons; contest entry,
+ &SCons; is the direct descendant of the &Cons; architecture,
+ and is currently
+ under active, supported development with a growing body of
+ users. Its first release was 13 December 2001, under the simple and
+ non-restrictive MIT license, and from the outset, the goal of the
+ members of the &SCons; project has been to deliver a stable, reliable
+ tool that can be used for industrial-strength software builds.
+
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+
+ The rest of this paper will give an overview of the &SCons; design
+ (including its architecture and interface), describe the development
+ methodology used, and discuss future directions for &SCons;.
+
+ </para>
+
+</section>