AC_MSG_RESULT(patching libtool to fix HIDEOUS BREAKAGE) [was Re: dconf 0.5]

[Ryan Lortie <desrt desrt ca>]

hi Kevin,

On Wed, 2010-08-04 at 08:39 -0700, Kevin Fox wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-08-03 at 18:42 -0700, Ryan Lortie wrote:
> > I am experimenting with living a libtool-free
> > existence.
> 
> Out of curiosity, why?

Short version:

  1) I don't believe that I need it.

  2) It has many features that are actively causing me pain.


Expanding on each of those points:

First, dconf is only really intended to be used on free operating
systems.  It will never be used on Windows and probably not on Mac OS
either.  That greatly reduces the complexity associated with building
shared libraries.

Second, the two big issues:

  - installation of .la files
    I need post-install hooks to erase them after they are installed.

  - forcing the undesired use of rpath
    The workarounds for this problem are VERY ugly, see
    http://wiki.debian.org/RpathIssue if you like to cry.

and also more trivial things:

  - almost doubling the time it takes to configure and build
  - distributing a(nother) gigantic shell script + m4 in tarballs

All together, if I don't need and and I don't like what it is doing to
me, then why should I continue to use it?

My intention is to develop a small m4 macro that guesses the correct way
to build shared libraries on a small selection of common Unix flavours,
at configure time, and use that instead.  Quite some people have
indicated to me that they would be interested in using this macro after
it becomes clear that it properly handles such a range of systems.


Cheers