>>> The progrmming language Eiffel has a module linking notation used to
>>> direct its compiler.

>> Eiffel projects have .ecf files
>> that describe their configuration and dependencies. Here's one example:
>> <http://seldoc.eecs.yorku.ca/doku.php/eiffel/faq/ecf>. Does this seem
>> familiar to you?
>
> No. not familiar at all.  The example in the book was not written in XML.
> I can't tell whether this is an XMLized version of that they had back then, or something completely different.

What about this? From
<http://se.ethz.ch/~meyer/ongoing/etl/LANGUAGE-TABLE.pdf>:

PART IV: THE LACE CONTROL LANGUAGE
........................................ 1005
B Specifying systems in Lace (in progress) 1007
B.1 OVERVIEW 1007
B.2 A SIMPLE EXAMPLE 1008
B.3 ON THE ROLE OF LACE 1009
B.4 A COMPLETE EXAMPLE 1010
B.5 BASIC CONVENTIONS 1012
B.6 BASICS OF CLUSTER CLAUSES 1014
B.7 STORING PROPERTIES WITH A CLUSTER 1016
B.8 EXCLUDING AND INCLUDING SOURCE FILES 1016
B.9 SPECIFYING OPTIONS 1018
B.10 SPECIFYING EXTERNAL ELEMENTS 1022
B.11 ONCE CONTROL 1023
B.12 GENERATION 1023
B.13 VISIBLE FEATURES 1024
B.14 COMPLETE LACE GRAMMAR 1027
B.15 LACE VALIDITY RULES 1027