Merge "Add two useful character constants." into lmp-dev

empty :=

space := $(empty) $(empty)

comma := ,

# Note that make will eat the newline just before endef.

define newline

endef

# Unfortunately you can't simply define backslash as \ or \\.

backslash := \a

backslash := $(patsubst %a,%,$(backslash))

# Tell python not to spam the source tree with .pyc files.  This

# only has an effect on python 2.6 and above.