autoconf (FWD: Re: Does anyone miss configure (lower case 'c'))

[Jim Jagielski <ji...@jaguNET.com>]

I'm sorry... I just couldn't resist. The Perl5 porters list is
"lamenting" that beast called autoconf...

See, I ain't the only one :) :)

Tom Horsley wrote:
> 
> >Sometimes I wish I could propagate a virus to 'rm -rf *autoconf*' all the
> >files on the planet and on the tape archives (at restore time, letting them
> >think the tape is corrupted) so that people be forced to use metaconfig. :-)
> 
> Can I help? :-).
> 
> >Actually, I have a whole battery of arguments to support this.
> >Some people just don't realize how badly Autoconf was designed.
> 
> It wouldn't be too awful if it simply had one big problem fixed. For some
> reason (even though you are supposed to be able to provide a predefined
> config.cache file) it insists on recomputing the answers to about half
> of the config parameters it sets regardless of what is in config.cache
> (or maybe it just doesn't think those are worth storing in config.cache).
> 
> Those parameters are *always* the ones it gets wrong (at least on my system,
> and I suspect on any system that doesn't have a user base that includes at
> least 10000 dedicated gnu software fanatics who are willing to debug the
> contortions of autoconf and submit patches :-).
> 
> Personally, I'd still rather sit down with an editor and a config.h file
> that has actual comments in it and just tell it the right values to use,
> but at least Configure will let me answer questions and will let me
> change *anything* with config.over...
> --
> Tom.Horsley@mail.ccur.com                \\\\      Will no one rid me of
> Concurrent Computers, Ft. Lauderdale, FL    \\\\     this troublesome
> Me: http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/          \\\\     autoconf?
> Project Vote Smart: http://www.vote-smart.org     \\\\    !!!!!
> 
> 


-- 
====================================================================
      Jim Jagielski            |       jaguNET Access Services
     jim@jaguNET.com           |       http://www.jaguNET.com/
            "Look at me! I'm wearing a cardboard belt!"