[eboard-devel] configure

[Daniel B. <d.b...@ve...>]

  It's probably too late, but after a long delay I've downloaded the new
eboard version to make Debian packages, and...

  OH MY GOD THEY KILLED CONFIGURE!

  Excuse the rant, but...why has the standard "configure" script been
replaced by a half-baked hack that makes it impossible to cleanly
override settings for packaging?  For instance,

print CONFIGH "#define DATADIR \"$prefix/share\"\n";

  So if I want data files in /usr/share/games, as required by Debian
policy, I get to patch configure and hope my patches don't break across
versions.  "configure --datadir=/usr/share/games" won't work, nor will
"make datadir=/usr/share/games".  I also can't override CXXFLAGS, because
instead of just specifying compile flags it also specifies include paths;
"make CXXFLAGS=-O2" will result in the compile bombing out.  Oh, and
trying to install to a staging directory, with "make prefix=foo
install", won't work because the Makefiles are generated with "prefix"
already replaced by its value; I have to override all the *dir variables
directly.

  The autotools are there for a reason, and throwing them out is just
going to make it a lot harder to build and reconfigure your software.
Please reconsider this change.

  Daniel

-- 
/------------------ Daniel Burrows <d.b...@ve...> ------------------\
|                The only thing worse than infinite recursion                 |
|                is infinite recursion.                                       |
\-Evil Overlord, Inc: planning your future today. http://www.eviloverlord.com-/