autotools (was Re: Remove cdrtools)
* Steve Greenland <steveg@moregruel.net> [060814 23:30]:
> The *real* problem with the whole autotools disaster is that it promotes
> a braindead idea of how to achieve portability: a #ifdef branch for
> every different system (or library version, or whatever), strewn
> throughout the entire codebase. Real portability involves understanding
> your target systems, learning where the rough edges and corner cases
> are, and developing proper abstractions to work around them.
I do not see how those two things interfere. You have to live with the
differences, so you have to test them. And that autoconf does for you.
What you do with this information is up to the program. You can either
clutter everything with #ifdefs or write some abstraction that fits for
your program and use all the information within there.
Also the article you quoted says that system specific stuff should be
as granular as possible, looking at the specific feature. And that is
exactly what autoconf does. (Which both is one of its biggest advantages
and also accounts for some of its disadvantages like the slowness).
Bernhard R. Link
--
Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing
an editor and a MTA.
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