artemp/mapnik — Issue #186: Scons usability improvements
Author: artemp
Created: 2011-10-11 16:02:58+00:00
State: open
Labels: Scons_Build_Scripts

For the upcoming 0.6.0 release, I think several usability improvements are needed for the Scons build process:

* -h (help) must be honored and shown even if dependencies are not found.
* a `config.py` should be output when all dependencies are found to save typing during the `install` step (whereby the path variables are saved) Note: This feature should only be added if documented well.
* if a lib or include is not found, more explanatory info should be output, such as the paths checked and how to specific the path variable for the missing lib/include.
* Scons' caching behavior should be better documented, or the --config=force should be default to avoid stale/improper path variables (I'll need to look into this more).

Thoughts?