🚀 go-pugleaf

I moved this discussion from bug-gnu-utils to gnu-misc-discuss.

   From: mcgill-vision!wubios.wustl.edu!david (David J. Camp)

   Francois, I use a completely diffferent approach in my development
   work.  My products [...] issue a directive [...] from the Makefile
   to include a file containing all the configuration logic.
   Furthermore, I have developed an alternative to ansidecl.h called
   portable.h that allows ansi-style declarations that work in a
   multitude of environments.

Let me friendly criticize your approach.  Your include file would
endlessly grow while new systems are discovered, and of little use to
unexpected systems.  By multitude of environment, you presumably
think, at least partly, to MSDOS compilers; I understand, with you,
that the autoconfiguring scripts are useless for MSDOS.  We both know
(and are well placed to know :-) that MSDOS support has never been a
GNU goal.

Should I say, I do not like much the aspect of program sources meant
to include `ansidecl.h' or be filtered by `ansidecl.m4'.  It seems,
*sigh!*, that GNU is moving that way.  I would prefer that most GNU
source code be written for GNU C, that is, ANSI, and unprotoized on
the fly while installing with older compilers.  For other system
differences, I like the current auto-configuring approach, which can
adapt dynamically to various or even unexpected platforms.

   The GNU library developers have indicated they are not interested
   in this approach, since they are not interested in portability.

GNU has a limited interest in portability.  In `standards.text', there
is a whole page titled `Portability standards'.  GNU system is
interested in portability towards machines, not towards other systems.
I consider GNU C and gas to be fairly portable, don't you? :-).

However, there is an actual need for the GNU development effort to be
better shared while the GNU system is not completed.  The GNU team is
making a very reasonnable (maybe temporary) compromise for GNU
software to be installable on many system platforms.  The published
GNU Makefile and Configuration standards are undoubtedly a step
towards portability which goes far beyond GNU admitted goals.

-- 
Franc,ois Pinard          ``Vivement GNU!''         pinard@iro.umontreal.ca
(514) 588-4656    cp 886 L'Epiphanie (Qc) J0K 1J0    ...!uunet!iros1!pinard