Cool, sounds like a really robust idea. Let's try some dollars or semicolons, then. I'm sure the next shell will be happy. (I don't even think that this is Make's biggest weakness. I can usually get along with that, as long as I get to choose the filenames and don't need any fancy strings otherwise. It's just a testament to what a poor programming model macros are).
> Text files aren't really any more fragile than any other way to tranfer the state
It's not about plain text files for transferring "state" (e.g. a list of fixed strings), which work fine for many cases and do have considerable advantages. This is about combining a cryptic shell language with a lousy build system macro syntax and semantics.
> This is why the GNU Make has a fantastic manual, I suggest you check it out: https://gnu.org/s/make/manual
As I wrote many times, I do actually know Make and have read much of the manual. Can't you believe me?
> It still gives you a standard interface that packagers and users would expect for build software
Believe me, packagers are indeed able to run a python script as opposed to only a make script. (Yes, if my intent was to have a software packaged by independent maintainers, I should add a "clean" routine as well. And offer some knobs for compiler flags - but this is already veering into fragile land, since the developer can't know what unexpected compiler options package maintainers will come up with).
> What integration do you want that you had in your silly hand written one?
Now I can't parse this sentence, but I sense that it's not a polite one.
> You can either construct a macro to do this or you can just give the data space delimited to python and change the spaces to commas there.
Oh, come on. I do not want to put in so much work (it's not a one-time thing - you have to do that every time you transfer a list) for such a poor, fragile result.
> Surely you know how to do it with python so why are you insisting on doing it with make?
I do not want to mess with Make at all. This should not be news.
> You also require your own library.
You can easily replace that with csv or json (both will be more robust than Make), or just put the data as literals into the python script, as I stated. My script is not intended as a finished thing for other people to use. This should not be news, either.