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='?'.
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  r2149 | stevenknight | 2007-07-17 15:22:24 -0500 (Tue, 17 Jul 2007) | 2 lines

  Remove left-over Optik mentions.
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  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.
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  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.
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  r2156 | stevenknight | 2007-07-18 20:15:08 -0500 (Wed, 18 Jul 2007) | 2 lines

  Convert documentation from DocBook SGML to XML.
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  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.
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  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.)
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  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)
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  r2172 | stevenknight | 2007-07-24 21:41:15 -0500 (Tue, 24 Jul 2007) | 2 lines

  More efficient copying of construction environments.
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  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.
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  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.
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  r2178 | stevenknight | 2007-07-25 21:43:47 -0500 (Wed, 25 Jul 2007) | 3 lines

  Add $JAVACLASSPATH and $JAVASOURCEPATH construction variables.  (Leanid
  Nazdrynau)
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  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.
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  r2183 | stevenknight | 2007-07-30 14:51:53 -0500 (Mon, 30 Jul 2007) | 2 lines

  More efficient source-builder suffix matching.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  r2218 | stevenknight | 2007-08-03 17:29:38 -0500 (Fri, 03 Aug 2007) | 2 lines

  Replace tabs with spaces.
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  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.
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  r2220 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 15:06:13 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 2 lines

  Refactor parallel class-generation loops into one.
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  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.
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  r2226 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 18:00:22 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 2 lines

  Fix SWIG when used with BuildDir().
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  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.
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  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.).
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  r2229 | stevenknight | 2007-08-07 23:40:00 -0500 (Tue, 07 Aug 2007) | 2 lines

  Fix a code example.  (Gary Oberbrunner)
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  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.
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  r2234 | stevenknight | 2007-08-08 17:03:25 -0500 (Wed, 08 Aug 2007) | 2 lines

  Changes to SCons packaging to support checkpoint releases.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
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  r2262 | stevenknight | 2007-08-11 23:24:49 -0500 (Sat, 11 Aug 2007) | 2 lines

  Add missing __revision__ lines.
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  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.
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  r2264 | stevenknight | 2007-08-11 23:36:30 -0500 (Sat, 11 Aug 2007) | 2 lines

  Add recent compatibility modules to the relevant exceptions lists.
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  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.
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  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.
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  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.
........

1 files changed, 425 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/user/preface.xml b/doc/user/preface.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..694f41b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/user/preface.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,425 @@
+<!--
+
+  __COPYRIGHT__
+
+  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+  a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+  "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+  without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+  distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+  permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+  the following conditions:
+
+  The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
+  in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+  THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
+  KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE
+  WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
+  NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
+  LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
+  OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
+  WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+
+-->
+
+  <para>
+
+  Thank you for taking the time to read about &SCons;.
+  &SCons; is a next-generation
+  software construction tool,
+  or make tool--that is, a software utility
+  for building software (or other files)
+  and keeping built software up-to-date
+  whenever the underlying input files change.
+
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+
+  The most distinctive thing about &SCons;
+  is that its configuration files are
+  actually <emphasis>scripts</emphasis>,
+  written in the &Python; programming language.
+  This is in contrast to most alternative build tools,
+  which typically invent a new language to
+  configure the build.
+  &SCons; still has a learning curve, of course,
+  because you have to know what functions to call
+  to set up your build properly,
+  but the underlying syntax used should be familiar
+  to anyone who has ever looked at a Python script.
+
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+
+  Paradoxically,
+  using Python as the configuration file format
+  makes &SCons;
+  <emphasis>easier</emphasis>
+  for non-programmers to learn
+  than the cryptic languages of other build tools,
+  which are usually invented by programmers for other programmers.
+  This is in no small part due to the
+  consistency and readability that are built in to Python.
+  It just so happens that making a real, live
+  scripting language the basis for the
+  configuration files
+  makes it a snap for more accomplished programmers
+  to do more complicated things with builds,
+  as necessary.
+
+  </para>
+
+  <!--
+
+  <section>
+  <title>Why &SCons;?</title>
+
+    <para>
+
+    &SCons; is a response to a perennial problem:
+    building software is harder than it should be.
+    In a nutshell:  the old, reliable model of the
+    venerable and ubiquitous &Make; program
+    has had a hard time keeping up with
+    how complicated building software has become.
+    The fact that &Make; has kept up as well as it has is impressive,
+    and a testament to how the simplicity.
+    But anyone who has wrestled with &Automake; and &Autoconf;
+    to try to guarantee that a bit of software
+    will build correctly on multiple platforms
+    can tell you that it takes a lot of work to get right.
+
+    </para>
+
+  </section>
+
+  -->
+
+  <section>
+  <title>&SCons; Principles</title>
+
+    <para>
+
+    There are a few overriding principles
+    we try to live up to in designing and implementing &SCons;:
+
+    </para>
+
+    <variablelist>
+
+      <varlistentry>
+      <term>Correctness</term>
+
+      <listitem>
+      <para>
+
+      First and foremost,
+      by default, &SCons; guarantees a correct build
+      even if it means sacrificing performance a little.
+      We strive to guarantee the build is correct
+      regardless of how the software being built is structured,
+      how it may have been written,
+      or how unusual the tools are that build it.
+
+      </para>
+      </listitem>
+      </varlistentry>
+
+      <varlistentry>
+      <term>Performance</term>
+
+      <listitem>
+      <para>
+
+      Given that the build is correct,
+      we try to make &SCons; build software
+      as quickly as possible.
+      In particular, wherever we may have needed to slow
+      down the default &SCons; behavior to guarantee a correct build,
+      we also try to make it easy to speed up &SCons;
+      through optimization options that let you trade off
+      guaranteed correctness in all end cases for
+      a speedier build in the usual cases.
+
+      </para>
+      </listitem>
+      </varlistentry>
+
+      <varlistentry>
+      <term>Convenience</term>
+
+      <listitem>
+      <para>
+
+      &SCons; tries to do as much for you out of the box as reasonable,
+      including detecting the right tools on your system
+      and using them correctly to build the software.
+
+      </para>
+      </listitem>
+      </varlistentry>
+
+    </variablelist>
+
+    <para>
+
+    In a nutshell, we try hard to make &SCons; just
+    "do the right thing" and build software correctly,
+    with a minimum of hassles.
+
+    </para>
+
+  </section>
+
+  <!--
+
+  <section>
+  <title>History</title>
+
+    <para>
+
+    &SCons; originated with a design
+    that was submitted to the Software Carpentry
+    design competition in 2000.
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    &SCons; is the direct descendant
+    of a Perl utility called &Cons;.
+    &Cons; in turn based some of its ideas on &Jam;,
+    a build tool from Perforce Systems.
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    XXX history of SCons
+
+    </para>
+
+  </section>
+
+  -->
+
+  <!--
+
+  <section>
+  <title>Conventions</title>
+
+    <para>
+
+    XXX conventions used in this manual
+
+    </para>
+
+  </section>
+
+  -->
+
+  <section>
+  <title>A Caveat About This Guide's Completeness</title>
+
+  <para>
+
+  One word of warning as you read through this Guide:
+  Like too much Open Source software out there,
+  the &SCons; documentation isn't always
+  kept up-to-date with the available features.
+  In other words,
+  there's a lot that &SCons; can do that
+  isn't yet covered in this User's Guide.
+  (Come to think of it,
+  that also describes a lot of proprietary software, doesn't it?)
+
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+
+  Although this User's Guide isn't as complete as we'd like it to be,
+  our development process does emphasize
+  making sure that the &SCons; man page is kept up-to-date
+  with new features.
+  So if you're trying to figure out how to do something
+  that &SCons; supports
+  but can't find enough (or any) information here,
+  it would be worth your while to look
+  at the man page to see if the information is covered there.
+  And if you do,
+  maybe you'd even consider contributing
+  a section to the User's Guide
+  so the next person looking for
+  that information won't have to
+  go through the same thing...?
+
+  </para>
+
+  </section>
+
+  <section>
+  <title>Acknowledgements</title>
+
+    <para>
+
+    &SCons; would not exist without a lot of help
+    from a lot of people,
+    many of whom may not even be aware
+    that they helped or served as inspiration.
+    So in no particular order,
+    and at the risk of leaving out someone:
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    First and foremost,
+    &SCons; owes a tremendous debt to Bob Sidebotham,
+    the original author of the classic Perl-based &Cons; tool
+    which Bob first released to the world back around 1996.
+    Bob's work on Cons classic provided the underlying architecture
+    and model of specifying a build configuration
+    using a real scripting language.
+    My real-world experience working on Cons
+    informed many of the design decisions in SCons,
+    including the improved parallel build support,
+    making Builder objects easily definable by users,
+    and separating the build engine from the wrapping interface.
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    Greg Wilson was instrumental in getting
+    &SCons; started as a real project
+    when he initiated the Software Carpentry design
+    competition in February 2000.
+    Without that nudge,
+    marrying the advantages of the Cons classic
+    architecture with the readability of Python
+    might have just stayed no more than a nice idea.
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    The entire &SCons; team have been
+    absolutely wonderful to work with,
+    and &SCons; would be nowhere near as useful a
+    tool without the energy, enthusiasm
+    and time people have contributed over the past few years.
+    The "core team"
+    of Chad Austin, Anthony Roach, Charles Crain,
+    Steve Leblanc, Gary Oberbrunner, Greg Spencer and Christoph Wiedemann
+    have been great about reviewing my (and other) changes
+    and catching problems before they get in the code base.
+    Of particular technical note:
+    Anthony's outstanding and innovative work on the tasking engine
+    has given &SCons; a vastly superior parallel build model;
+    Charles has been the master of the crucial Node infrastructure;
+    Christoph's work on the Configure infrastructure
+    has added crucial Autoconf-like functionality;
+    and Greg has provided excellent support
+    for Microsoft Visual Studio.
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    Special thanks to David Snopek for contributing
+    his underlying "Autoscons" code that formed
+    the basis of Christoph's work with the Configure functionality.
+    David was extremely generous in making
+    this code available to &SCons;,
+    given that he initially released it under the GPL
+    and &SCons; is released under a less-restrictive MIT-style license.
+
+    </para>
+
+    <!--
+
+    <para>
+
+    &SCons; has received contributions
+    from many other people, of course:
+    Matt Balvin (extending long command-line support on Windows),
+    Allen Bierbaum (extensions and fixes to Options),
+    Steve Christensen (help text sorting and function action signature fixes),
+    Michael Cook (avoiding losing signal bits from executed commands),
+    Derrick 'dman' Hudson (),
+    Alex Jacques (work on the Windows scons.bat file),
+    Stephen Kennedy (performance enhancements),
+    Lachlan O'Dea (SharedObject() support for masm
+    and normalized paths for the WhereIs() function),
+    Damyan Pepper (keeping output like Make),
+    Jeff Petkau (significant fixes for CacheDir and other areas),
+    Stefan Reichor (Ghostscript support),
+    Zed Shaw (Append() and Replace() environment methods),
+    Terrel Shumway (build and test fixes, as well as the SCons Wiki)
+    and
+    sam th (dynamic checks for utilities).
+
+    </para>
+
+    -->
+
+    <para>
+
+    Thanks to Peter Miller
+    for his splendid change management system, &Aegis;,
+    which has provided the &SCons; project
+    with a robust development methodology from day one,
+    and which showed me how you could
+    integrate incremental regression tests into
+    a practical development cycle
+    (years before eXtreme Programming arrived on the scene).
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    And last, thanks to Guido van Rossum
+    for his elegant scripting language,
+    which is the basis not only for the &SCons; implementation,
+    but for the interface itself.
+
+    </para>
+
+  </section>
+
+  <section>
+  <title>Contact</title>
+
+    <para>
+
+    The best way to contact people involved with SCons,
+    including the author,
+    is through the SCons mailing lists.
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    If you want to ask general questions about how to use &SCons;
+    send email to &scons-users;.
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    If you want to contact the &SCons; development community directly,
+    send email to &scons-devel;.
+
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+
+    If you want to receive announcements about &SCons;,
+    join the low-volume &scons-announce; mailing list.
+
+    </para>
+
+  </section>