[MPlayer-dev-eng] autoconf
Paul Jarc
prj at po.cwru.edu
Mon Mar 24 19:44:37 CET 2003
D Richard Felker III <dalias at aerifal.cx> wrote:
> So, if I install 2.5x to build new programs that require it, I can't
> build a few old programs that require 2.13,
If the generated files are stored in CVS, users won't have to worry
about that.
> Also I just fail to see how a bunch of ugly M4 macros and unreadable
> machine-generated shellscript are preferable to straightforward
> human-readable script.
More use -> more testing -> fewer bugs. Familiar features.
> If I'm a user and get an error from MPlayer's configure, I can read
> the script and actually tell what's wrong. With autoconf, trying to
> read the script is hopeless.
I agree on that point; I'm working on my own build script generator
that creates much more readable scripts. (It's designed for
slashpackage, though, so I wouldn't have been able to use autoconf
anyway for the projects where I use my generator.)
<URL:http://cr.yp.to/slashpackage.html>
But this problem is offset (to some degree) by the fact that
autoconf's scripts are better tested and thus less buggy; you don't
need to debug the script as often.
paul
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