Get the first letter of a make variable
gnu-make
Solution
This is pretty horrible, but at least it doesn't invoke `shell`:
$(eval REMAINDER := $$$(VAR)) # variable minus the first char
FIRST := $(subst $(REMAINDER),,$(VAR)) # variable minus that
Problem
Is there a better way to get the first character of a GNU `make` variable than ``` FIRST=$(shell echo $(VARIABLE) | head -c 1) ``` (which is not only unwieldy but also calls the external shell)?