Boost.Build V2 python port

This page describes porting of Boost.Build to Python. This page is only of interest of developers willing to help with the port.

Why?

Boost.Build V2 is mostly implemented in the interpreted language of the underlying build tool, and it has a number of problems:

• No user knows that language, making it hard to extend Boost.Build or become new developer.
• The language is strange at times, and not very nicely documented.
• There's no standard libraries, so every new functionality should be implemented from scratch
• The only data structure in the language is list of strings. This makes many tests cumbersome, and leads to excessive memory consumption and poor performance on some workloads.

How?

The Python port is supposed to be 1:1 translation, with only mechanical changes. The language used to describe targets will not change, and all tests won't be altered. The port will be declared complete when all files are ported, and all tests pass using ported version.

Hacking and trying