SCons still supports two functions that used to be the
primary methods for configuring the
decision about whether or not an input file has changed.
These functions have been officially deprecated
as SCons version 2.0,
and their use is discouraged,
mainly because they rely on a somewhat
confusing distinction between how
source files and target files are handled.
These functions are documented here mainly in case you
encounter them in older SConscript
files.