Extensibility for more complex build steps

[benpye]

I really like the idea of this, I wish build systems were less intrusive and this seems to do something toward that. I feel however it would be useful to have more extensibility to run tools such as protoc (Protobuf compiler) to generate code, before then compiling it, as currently I can't see any way of doing this. If you really wanted to stick with the whole everything is C aspect, you could maybe even use TCC or such to achieve this, but I'm not sure it's really necessary to go to those lengths.

[andlabs]

Adding more format is definitely desirable; perhaps I could add a #qo generate facility...

What is TCC?

[refi64]

Tiny C Compiler.

Is that even maintained anymore? Most places now use Clang.

[benpye]

Yeah I don't think it's maintained, just ideas.

[andlabs]

Yes, but what ideas are you suggesting with TCC?

[benpye]

Oh I was just thinking of ideas with how qo could be extended at runtime, the idea there being I guess being able to add a custom function that would be in the same language as the program, obviously, this doesn't work if support is added for other languages, and you could probably just use the host compiler. I'm not sure however how productive it is to implement your own scripting language, perhaps you could call a batch or shell script, and allow the user to handle it, and all you do is register the extension.

[andlabs]

Ah I'll see; I'll think about that (keep this open in the meantime). Thanks.