Re: new programmer frustrated with autoconf/automake

[Tom Tromey <tromey cygnus com>]

>>>>> "Jamin" == Jamin Philip Gray <jgray@writeme.com> writes:

Jamin> I'm trying to learn how to use the GNU automake/autoconf
Jamin> system.  I'm finding the documentation very difficult to wade
Jamin> through (I've been reading it all evening).  Could someone
Jamin> outline the process for me?  Or point me to a site online where
Jamin> I can get a general overview.  I've looked at other
Jamin> application's configure scripts and makefiles and so forth and
Jamin> can't make heads or tails of them.  Are there utilities that
Jamin> automate this for me?

http://sourceware.cygnus.com/autoconf/ has pointers to some useful
material: Ian Taylor's introduction to the auto* tools, Mark Galassi's
auto* tutorial, and Eleftherios Gkioulekas' tutorial.

These also cover automake to varying degrees.

As far as I know there are no tools to automate this process which are
in wide use.  There is the start of an Emacs automake mode, which is
supposed to make it easier to write Makefile.ams, but I have never
tried it.  For autoconf, you can use "autoscan" to generate a first
cut at configure.in for an existing project (but it really is only a
first cut).

Tom