Hello,

On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 09:17:46AM +0700, Gary V. Vaughan wrote:
> [[resent from my subscribed email address after the mailing list rejected the original]]
> 
> [...] 
> AFAICT, without rewriting the entire GNU build system from the ground
> up (and there is far too much momentum behind it to ever gain enough
> traction to switch the GNU eco-system to an entirely new and different
> build system anyway) the following precepts are immutable:

It took me less time to write R.I.S.K. (the building framework used
for KerGIS and KerTeX)---and R.I.S.K. does shared libraries if supported
and desired---from scratch than to try to understand auto*
and libtool. Furthermore, the auto* and libtool were typically made
for trying to do something "working" to some extend with a chaotic
source. They typically manage to compile "things" written by
programmers who have been encouraged to look at the finger ignoring
the moon: to concentrate on the "GNU" tools and "GNU" libraries
etc, and not on C89 (or C99), POSIX etc.

Furthermore, the tools were not written with cross-compilation in mind:
compiling and testing a program to run it for obtaining an information
is making the assumption that MATRIX == TARGET. Cross-compilation allows
you to build with some assumptions and some warranties (on the MATRIX)
for a TARGET that has perhaps not, by itself, all the utilities you are
assuming.

The main problem is indeed "philosophy": encourage the bazaar even in
the code. I personnally don't buy that. And the acronym "GNU is Not
Unix" is a sophism since GNU will be strictly nothing without Unices,
especially open source ones. But since GNU is not Unix, there are
imbeciles that insist that a real GNU system must not conform to POSIX,
because it is a Unix thing, neither to a C standard ([scornful]: if you
really want this my dear, try "-pedantic"...).

The GNU way, with the auto* and libtool is demonstrated with GPL GRASS
and GPL TeXLive. And I have made the demonstration of the power of
organized against bazaar by reworking the two monstruous things
_alone_ so that they are maintainable, that is able to be "hold in
on hand".

Cheers,
-- 
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                      http://www.kergis.com/
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