Re: [Notion-devel] Have we ever discussed using autoconf?

[Dima K. <no...@di...>]

je...@jo... writes:

> On Sat, Jan 18, 2014 at 04:00:28PM -0500, Jeff Backus wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>> 
>> Have we considered using autoconf to generate some of the .mk files, 
>> such as modulelist.mk and system-autodetect.mk? With the requirement 
>> that the user be able to override various things like version of lua 
>> used or locations of various libraries, it seems to me like being able 
>> to do "./configure --uselua51" or whatever might be more user-friendly 
>> than editing files.
>
> I don't remember.  I would however strongly suggest something other than
> autotools.  Personally, I much prefer CMake [1].  While it is far from
> perfect, it is way saner than autotools.

Hi.

What problem are we trying to solve here? I.e. why move to autotools or
cmake? The current build system problems aren't due to our use of plain
make. My STRONG preference is vanilla make. Before we go off rebuilding
this, can we write down an explicit list of things we want the build to
do that it isn't currently doing? Then we can evaluate if moving build
systems is worth the trouble.

dima