[Patches] Re: [Patch #101774] revise BeOS build (et al.) - summary

[Donn Cave]

I hope this isn't eating into the release schedule too much, but
it's great to see these late patches get considered.  I tried to
email some remarks along these lines after I pasted the patches in,
but obviously they didn't reach anyone.

- dl_export.h wasn't installed properly (in the wrong place)
- Build didn't work on BeOS PowerPC architecture

* Eliminate dl_export.h and its include in config.h, which was
  only ever needed on PowerPC anyway.  Shift these defines to $(OPT)
  during configure.
* Replace Chris Herborth's heroic ar-fake with a silly ar-fake that
  just uses a directory.  libpython.a is never used for anything but
  shuffling object files, libpython.so is built at the end.  (Also
  very expedient, other architectures may use if they like.)
  * Add make libpython.so target in top Makefile.
  * Change rm -f libpython.a to rm -rf libpython.a, in Modules/Makefile

* Obsoleted special LINKCC script.  Removed some unnecessary BeOS stuff
  from configure, shifted other parts to group with similar things.
* Removed force MACHDEP to "beos" - no strong feelings about this, but
  for me it the standard Python usage makes sense, beos4, beos5 etc.
 
What happened to Chris Herborth -  Don't know.  I have corresponded with
him in the past, but in this matter haven't had any response after at
least a week.

BeOS current state:  two releases in use, 4.5 and 5.0, mostly the latter
but a fair number still at 4.5 and with compilers.  Differences between
the two releases don't affect the Python build.  Two hardware architectures
in use, PPC and Intel.  Mostly the latter and the PPC architecture is
officially facing a support sunset but still in common use among early
adopters.

Thanks,
	Donn Cave, donn@oz.net