From: root AT jacob DOT remcomp DOT fr (root) Subject: Re: make cacking! 25 Aug 1997 10:17:09 -0700 Approved: cygnus DOT gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com Distribution: cygnus Message-ID: Content-Type: text Original-To: sl9y3 AT cc DOT usu DOT edu (Sandeep Neema) Original-Cc: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com In-Reply-To: <33FD61E2.77D0341E@cc.usu.edu> from "Sandeep Neema" at Aug 22, 97 03:54:42 am Original-Sender: owner-gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com > > hi all, > excuse my ignorance but the make that comes with b18 distribution > always cacks on all my makefiles with error: > > Makefile:: *** missing seperator. Stop. > > I am lost. please help!! > - Isn't obvious man? You are missing the separator! More than 10 years ago I discovered UNIX, that strange OS of sorts. There I learned that make would stop telling me: > Makefile:: *** missing separator. Stop when I replaced inadvertenltly a TAB char with SPACES!!!!! Since TAB and SPACE are SO *easy* to distinguish in your computer screen or printout that was a HELL! 2 years ago someone posted the same question to this list, and I answered in similar terms: MAKE SHOULDN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TABS AND SPACES To no avail as it seems. I have always wandered why this bug doesn't go away... The reasons are many. People at cygnus are overworked, and this is a minor problem, and once you know it, you do not do it again, so this bug will never bite them, it harms only beginners... Maybe there are some crazy makefiles that rely in this 'feature', and people think that hypothetical makefiles would break down... bugs of this style tend to go forever: look at the Ctrl-Z bug of Microsoft that is still hunting us well over 10 years since DOS 2.0 that fixed it. Maybe we should start a contest of the longuest living bug around. I think this make *feature* would be a good candidate. -- Jacob Navia Logiciels/Informatique 41 rue Maurice Ravel Tel 01 48.23.51.44 93430 Villetaneuse Fax 01 48.23.95.39 France - For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "gnu-win32-request AT cygnus DOT com" with one line of text: "help".