Re: autotools gives autopain

[Fernando Herrera <fherrera gmail com>]

On 12/17/05, Andy Tai <lichengtai gmail com> wrote:
> Interesting... this looks like a solution looking for a problem.  There is
> no problem the autotools present to GNOME that could not be solved.  All the
> weaknesses you listed about autotools clearly are not issues for GNOME
> developers, or else GNOME won't be where it is today.

   Hi, I think we should be pragmatic in this discussion. What issues
with autotools make us cry? (and "us" are maintainers, developers and
packagers):
   1) We need to install 5 or 6 different versions of the autotools in
order to bootstrap GNOME from CVS
   2) It's very slow. Automake regeneration is slow and configure scripts are.
   3) It's difficult to maintain

But before considering a new solution we need to be sure that this new
solution gives us all the good things autotools gave us in the past:

  a) They work on all the GNOME platform and OS combinations (Linux,
FreeBSD, Hurd, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, AIX  x  i386, powepc,
x64....)
  b) They are correctly documented
  c) They allow us to compile CVS versions and make tarballs with just 1 line.

So if scons can guarantee us a, b and c, and it fixes 1,2 and 3 I
think we should consider them.

Salu2