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MAKE
The Zortech MAKE utility, inspired by the UNIX utility of the same
name, is a full-featured MAKE for MSDOS. Features include macros, full
dependency checking, MSDOS internal commands, and descriptive error
messages.
What is MAKE?
MAKE is a utility that automates program maintenance. Instead of
explicitly typing in commands to compile and link your program(s), it
is possible to write all of the steps necessary in a text file called
makefile then just give the command MAKE when you wish to compile and
link.
The steps to producing the executable file would be:
1.Compile the source program into an object program.
2.Link the object program with the C++ library. MAKE differs from
batch processing in that it performs only the required actions, while
a batch file will execute all tasks, whether they are needed or not.
Format of the makefile:
TARGET-FILE : DEPENDENT-FILE DEPENDENT-FILE2
COMMAND 1
COMMAND 2
An Example makefile
hello.exe:hello.obj #Target/Dependence line
ZTC hello.obj #Command/Rule line
hello.obj:hello.cpp #Target line
ZTC -c hello.cpp #Command line
This shows how to create a makefile for a program written in one
source file only. In the above example the target is hello.exe which
depends on hello.obj which in turn depends on hello.cpp. MAKE first
checks if the date and time of hello.cpp is more recent than
hello.obj. If it is more recent, or if hello.obj does not exist, then
the command line ZTC -c hello.cpp is carried out. This will create a
new hello.obj which means that this will now be newer than any
existing hello.exe so the command ZTC hello.obj will also be carried
out. To use the above makefile you would just type MAKE.
Dependency Files
Dependency files are all the source files that, when changed, cause a
change in their resulting target files. For example, modifying a C++
source file will cause the object file resulting from the compilation
to change. But the source file may not be the only dependency. When
the source file includes other files, then these included files are
also dependency files. An example would be the line
#include "defs.hpp"
in a source file prog.cpp. This would MAKE the file defs.hpp a
dependency. The makefile line would be:
prog.obj: prog.cpp defs.hpp
which means that prog.obj depends on prog.cpp and defs.hpp.
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