Re: [9fans] A newbie question...

["Paweł Lasek" <pawel.lasek@gmail.com>]

On Feb 3, 2008 2:55 AM, Pietro Gagliardi <pietro10@mac.com> wrote:
> Circular cause and consequence is funny. Let me add to this list:
> - jpg
> - png
> - tiff
> - PostScript
> - TeX (tpic)
> - HTML
> - Mahjongg, sokoban, sudoku, tetris (games/4s)
> - SPARC, MIPS, x64
> - MP3, PCM, OGG (PAC was made at Bell Labs)
> - SoundBlaster 16
>
> Let me put it this way:
>         GNU software is good, except for GNU development tools, which,
> except for the gcc program itself, are mediocre and break
> compatibility (try using a Bell Labs makefile with GNU make).
>

I'd add to it the fact that autotools source files are hard to make, so
many people who are to lazy to do it properly just put the famous
(in)sanity check and checks for libs they use. The effect?

A simple C program that doesn't rely on anything except for example libpng
will check for C, C++, FORTRAN 77 compilers, check if those are from
GCC and various other things.

Imagine my surprise when I had seen a configure script (for EmacsLisp
utility) that only checked for Emacs version
and few EmacsLisp files it used - a rare thing IMHO, when >80% of
configure running time is for checking for not used
software.

"CPU cycles are cheap, programmer time is expensive" <--- This doesn't
mean that total laziness is appropriate.

The best thing about autotools is I think the scheme of running
configure - AFAIK mplayer doesn't even use configure for it's script,
instead
they use their own, which looks the same to end user. And saves a lot
of time :-)

--
Paul Lasek