A set of extensions to the open-source SCons build tool (www.scons.org)

Introduction

What is the Software Construction Toolkit? * A toolkit for building applications. * Open-source, so you can use it for building open-source products. * Based on the open-source SCons build tool. * Written in python; easily extended by writing tool modules. * Documented. * Tested. * Your friend!

A sample of features: * Build Windows, Linux, Mac desktop platforms with a single set of build files. * Support for parallel (multi-processor) builds on all platforms. * Support for distributed builds via distcc and Incredibuild. * Generate Visual Studio solution and project files.

Why is the only tool in the toolkit a hammer? * If you have a hammer, what other tools do you need? * Once you start using it, everything looks like a nail - it's flexible enough you want to use it for all your build needs. * Getting hammered is just as much fun for project builds as it is for developers. * Because typing 'software_construction_toolkit.bat' would be too painful.

Why is this project separate from SCons? Why not just change SCons itself? * SCons is a very flexible build tool. Where we can improve SCons while maintaining its flexibility, we're contributing changes directly back to SCons. * Software Construction Toolkit provides a framework of additional builders and tools for SCons to make cross-platform development and testing easier. This framework does make some assumptions about the structure of a build - for example, that all libraries have distinct names. To preserve SCons's flexibility, we've kept the parts of the framework which rely on those assumptions in a separate project.

Documentation

Introduction to the Software Construction Toolkit

Glossary of all functions, variables, and methods added by the Software Construction Toolkit

Examples of common tasks

Developing Software Construction Toolkit: * Writing and running tests