On Fri, 6 Nov 1998 03:55:57 -0330 (NST)
Neil Zanella <nzanella_at_cs.mun.ca>
wrote concerning 'FVWM: M4 pre-processing: pros and cons':
>
> Hello,
>
> I am thinking of having M4 pre-process my .fvwm2rc file but before doing
> so I would like to know the following: What does M4 exactly do? What does it
> stand for? What was the motivation behind the creation of M4?
Hey Neil
M4 is a macro processor that has been around in unix for a long time.
Your best bet is to read the man page for it on your system (or info
page if you have GNU M4).
> Can I use it define and undefine variables just like within a C program?
Yes. That is what I mostly use it for. For example I do stuff like this:
m4_define(FORE_COLOUR, `Gray')
m4_define(EDITOR_COLOUR, `GoldenRod')
Style "Emacs" Color FORE_COLOUR/EDITOR_COLOUR
Style "XJed" Color FORE_COLOUR/EDITOR_COLOUR
Style "xedit" Color FORE_COLOUR/EDITOR_COLOUR
Makes changing settings much easier. That's simple. You can do much more
interesting things, too.
> What are the pros and cons of M4 pre-processing?
Read the FvwmM4 and FvwmCpp man pages to compare M4 and cpp.
Ric
Richard J Lister, Georgetown Institute for Cognitive and Computational Sciences
Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA
Phone: +1 202-687 2878
Email: ric_at_giccs.georgetown.edu
Web:
http://www.giccs.georgetown.edu/~ric/
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Received on Mon Nov 09 1998 - 10:38:59 GMT