Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Jason Flatt <jason AT flattfamily.com>]

On Sunday 13 February 2005 11:33 am, Flavien Bridault wrote:
> Just come back from the week-end...
>
> I modified the udev spell once again and did this stuff. It is a bit too
> late for people who use test grimoire, but it should be useful for people
> who use stable grimoire.
>
> Sorry for the question about PREPARE file, but it seems it was not obvious
> for everyone (according to a discussion on #sourcemage...). Some people use
> CONFIGURE to do this kind of stuff (that should not work, but it works, see
> kde spells for instance ;-) ).
>
> I wonder if such warnings should not become a rule when big changes happen
> in a spell. Maybe a notice in guru handbook should be added ??? We can even
> imagine that a sorcery, or a grimoire function could simplify this ?? Any
> suggestion about this ??

According to the Wiki page [0]:

"PREPARE - Useful for those rare times when the DETAILS file needs to be 
modified or the spell or package needs to be configured before the DETAILS 
file is executed."

and

"CONFIGURE - Used to select and modfiy a package's compile time options."

which tells me that this sort of situation should be handled by PREPARE and 
not CONFIGURE.  While PREPARE may not be, strictly speaking, the exact right 
place to ask the exit question and the bail out on a negative reply, 
CONFIGURE certainly isn't the right place.

The way I think about it (which may not be etirely correct) is the PREPARE 
file is for the possible additional configuration of the spell at cast-time 
(if necessary), and the CONFIGURE file is for possible additional 
configuration of the package's options.

If that Wiki page is not correct, it should be changed.

[0] http://wiki.sourcemage.org/index.php?page=Spellbook


-- 
Jason Flatt
Father of five: http://www.flattfamily.com/
Linux user: http://www.sourcemage.org/ - http://www.lvlug.org/