From:	 Steven Knight <knight@baldmt.com>
To:	 <python-list@python.org>
Subject: ANNOUNCE: SCons (Python build tool) development under way
Date:	 Thu, 12 Jul 2001 11:06:44 -0500 (CDT)

This is to announce that active development of SCons is now underway at:

	http://scons.sourceforge.net/

SCons is a Python software construction (or software build) tool--that
is, a substitute or replacement for Make.  SCons is implemented as a
Python script around a central set of Python build-engine modules.
SCons configuration files are actually executed as Python scripts,
allowing you to use full Python functionality to control your build.
You use Python functions and methods in the configuration files to tell
the central build engine about your input and output files.

Other key features:  Dependency calculations are done using MD5
signatures, yielding more reliable builds than timestamp-based
dependency analysis.  Most dependencies are handled automatically.
Building multiple targets in parallel (-j) is supported.  It's easy to
add your own Builder objects and otherwise customize your build.

SCons is still on its way to alpha release, so there's no official
package available for download at the moment--sorry.  Much of the
infrastructure has been coded, though, and is available for anonymous
CVS checkout, or browsable via the CVS web interface under the SCons
project page at SourceForge:

	http://sourceforge.net/projects/scons/

The usual set of mailing lists (scons-announce, scons-devel,
scons-users) has been created.  Follow the web site links to subscribe.

A small development team (n == 3) is working towards finishing enough
documentation and basic functionality for a rapid series of alpha
releases in the (hopefully) near future.  To help that effort, we'd like
to become larger than just a "small" team.  If you're interested in
contributing, we'd love to hear from you.  Check out the developer
guidelines on the SCons web site.

Yes, SCons is the direct descendant of the ScCons design that won the
Software Carpentry build tool competition last year.  It's been renamed
(dropped the extra 'c') to make it slightly easier to type, and to try
to reflect weakly the fact that this project is no longer directly
related to Software Carpentry.  (Sorry, I don't know the current status
of Software Carpentry or the other tools they were planning.)

The SCons design is based on the design of the Perl-based Cons software
construction tool:

	http://www.dsmit.com/cons/

SCons improves on the Cons architecture by incorporating several years
of practical experience with its strengths and weaknesses.  (And, of
course, by being written in Python...  :-)

	--SK


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