Re: build systems

[David Zeuthen <david fubar dk>]

On Fri, 2007-11-09 at 23:03 +0000, Alp Toker wrote:
> Richard Hughes wrote:
> >> - Are the current drawbacks of using autotools in GNOME so so so
> >> annoying that it would be really worth the effort of migrating to
> >> something else?
> > 
> > Well, I just copy and paste chunks of code in configure.ac from other
> > projects, changing the names of constants where required. I really don't
> > understand how this stuff all works. It's so compicated and legacy bodge
> > over lagacy bodge. It's slow to build and smatters small script files
> > all over my source tree - and when it blows up i've not got any idea how
> > to debug it or fix things.
> 
> Hate to be devil's advocate here but maybe you'd be better equipped to 
> fix your build system if you read the documentation instead of blindly 
> copying chunks of configure.ac out of other projects and hoping it works?

Hey, I can be the devil's advocate too: I bet that if Richard had done
what you are suggesting then we wouldn't have things like g-p-m or
PackageKit... I bet Richard would just have given up because this free
software thing has a too steep learning curve. That's true for me
anyway; I'm also a card-carrying "copy autogunk; hope that it works;
wait for patches when it breaks" kind of person too.

(Also, I think this discussion is misguided; I mean, as others have
pointed out, it's a bit premature to have this discussion without having
any shiny and convincing examples of why buildsystem XYZ is better than
autofoo.)

      David