[ADMB Users] makadmb vs. admb

[Arni Magnusson]

Good point, Saang-Yoon. I don't think the new compilation scripts have 
been introduced properly.

I wrote the new scripts (adcomp, adlink, admb) to replace a wide variety 
of old scripts that had different compiler-dependent names. Some of the 
old scripts didn't work, and sometimes there were obvious missing scripts 
for a given compiler, left as an exercise for the user.

As you may already have found out, adcomp compiles (C++ -> object code), 
adlink links (object code -> executable), and admb builds (translates, 
compiles, and links).

The new scripts provide a uniform user interface for all compilers, and 
intuitive options for fine control. A simple help page is shown if you run 
a script without any arguments, and more details can be found in the 
script comments and code.

These scripts should of course be mentioned in the ADMB user manual. The 
9.0 version of the manual only mentions 'makeadmb', 'myvcc.bat', 
'linkvcc.bat', and 'makedll.bat', which have all been deprecated. A 
forthcoming version of the manual will mention the new scripts instead, 
and the ADMB-RE manual is already up to date.

Incidentally, I have just released a new set of scripts for GCC (Windows 
and Linux) and Borland (Windows) that can be downloaded from:

   http://admb-project.org/community/editing-tools/admb-ide

These are the most current scripts and will also ship with the next 
version of ADMB. GCC and Borland are the compilers I have on my machine, 
and I hope the ADMB community will maintain similar scripts for other 
platforms and compilers. I believe Johnoel Ancheta adapted the scripts for 
Sun Studio and Visual C++, and Laurie Kell is currently improving the 
Visual C++ scripts.

Arni



On Tue, 16 Mar 2010, Saang-Yoon wrote:

> Hello.
>
> Recently I learned that "admb" is a new command for compilng and
> linking a TPL file.  I have been using "makadmb" for several years,
> which still works.  I am curious about why "admb" replaces "makadmb"
> and what is a difference between those two commands.  Is there any
> place that describes answers to my curiosity?  If so, please introduce
> it.  Otherwise, would you mind explanining?  Thanks,
>
> Saang-Yoon
>