>This patch adds a new feature to make(1). Variables can be marked
>read-only, so there is no chance of overwriting them accidentally. The
>intended usage is:

>.BEGIN_READONLY:
>CFLAGS.NetBSD=   -Wall
>CFLAGS.SunOS=    -O
>CFLAGS.IRIX=     -v
>.END_READONLY:

>PROG= foobar
>.READONLY: PROG

Ignoring the merits of the idea (I'm not sure how much use it would get);
The .READONLY form I could live with but not the .BEGIN/.END form.

Also, what are the semantics of a "readonly" variable when overridden on the
command line?  POSIX says the command line takes precedence - which is a 
generally useful property.

--sjg