jl42+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jay Mathew Libove) (10/25/88)
Well, Larry (for the first time I've ever seen) made a number of very very bad assumptions in his configure distribution. 1) that you have Perl. Perl doesn't run on 80286 machines. Not at all. 2) that your system can deal with a simple makefile unser /bin/csh without SHELL=/bin/sh in the makefile - SCO Xenix SysV/286 v2.2.1 breaks here. You have to have the SHELL=/bin/sh. 3) the Configure that came with the configure package didn't ask for other CFLAGS and LDFLAGS. Well, you need that on segmented machines in order to give the model switches, else you have to hand locate and edit the makefiles to add them. What happenned Larry? Your utilities used to be the best, and most portable programs on the net... Jay Libove ARPA: jl42@andrew.cmu.edu, libove@cs.cmu.edu 5731 Centre Avenue, Apt 3 BITNET: jl42@andrew Pittsburgh, PA 15206 UUCP: uunet!nfsun!libove!libove (412) 362-8983 UUCP: psuvax1!pitt!darth!libove!libove
lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) (10/26/88)
In article <UXMr1IyW2k-001OHVZ@andrew.cmu.edu> jl42+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jay Mathew Libove) writes:
: Well, Larry (for the first time I've ever seen) made a number of very
: very bad assumptions in his configure distribution.
:
: 1) that you have Perl. Perl doesn't run on 80286 machines. Not at all.
I have some patches to make it run on the 80286. Just haven't had time
to integrate them and post them.
I think that, in the long run, writing the dist package in perl will turn
out to have been the right thing, but I have no illusions about the difficulty
this will pose some people who don't have perl ported to their machine yet.
But see below.
: 2) that your system can deal with a simple makefile unser /bin/csh
: without SHELL=/bin/sh in the makefile - SCO Xenix SysV/286 v2.2.1
: breaks here. You have to have the SHELL=/bin/sh.
That sounds like a simple thing to fix. In fact, I just did. It'll come
out with the next patch.
: 3) the Configure that came with the configure package didn't ask
: for other CFLAGS and LDFLAGS. Well, you need that on segmented
: machines in order to give the model switches, else you have to
: hand locate and edit the makefiles to add them.
There are no C programs in the whole dist package. Why should the Configure
ask for CFLAGS and LDFLAGS?
: What happenned Larry? Your utilities used to be the best, and most
: portable programs on the net...
I assure you, metaconfig IS the best and most portable Configure script
generator on the net... :-)
Not that it can't be better, of course.
I said it when I announced the dist package back about a half-year ago, but
I'd better say it again. (In retrospect I should probably have documented
this in the README file.) The dist package is not in the same class as the
other things I've distributed. Those have been for anybody to use, more
or less. The dist package is a response to those people who wanted to use
the software that I use to create and maintain the distributions I've done.
I wrote the package to please myself primarily, and if anyone else gets
some benefit from it, that's fine. And I intend that the tool grow into
something that is of use to more people, but in it's current form it is
most useful to someone who can read code and dicker with it to make it do
what is desirable. There was enough demand for it in that form that I
thought it worthwhile to post in that form.
The fact that it's written in perl is part of this. In the long run, I
expect most systems to have perl. When this comes about, I expect that a
program written in perl should be somewhat more portable that a similar C
program. Thus long-term portability is enhanced by writing it in perl.
That wasn't my primary motivation for writing it in perl, however. It's
simply an application that is better expressed in perl, and that makes it
easier for me to dicker with it. I'm a very lazy fellow, actually.
(On a more sinister level, I suppose some small part of my motivation was to
force people to take a better look at perl, but just forget I said that.) :-)
Anyway, none of the other programs I've distributed were all that portable
at the beginning either. You've just seen this one at an earlier stage
of development. I'm sorry I wasn't clear enough about the purpose of this
distribution to save you some grief.
Larry Wall
lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.govfox@marlow.uucp (Paul Fox) (11/01/88)
In article <3412@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) writes: >In article <UXMr1IyW2k-001OHVZ@andrew.cmu.edu> jl42+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jay Mathew Libove) writes: >: Well, Larry (for the first time I've ever seen) made a number of very >: very bad assumptions in his configure distribution. >: Just to add my tuppence worth. I thing Configure is one of the nicest things I have seen in a long while, and I have great respect for Larry's software. Anything written by him seems to be very useful >crawl< >crawl<... Anyway having got that over with, I must say I am pretty p*ssed off with Configure. I have tried 3 times to get Configure working on our Sun, and although I am capable of getting it to work if I spend three days on it, I do not have 3 days. I first came across Configure (dist) on osu-cis. I downloaded the code only to find it needed perl 2.0 (we had perl 1.x). So I brought out perl 2.0 from our archive and tried to include the upteen odd patches only to find I needed patch version xx.yy. Back to osu-cis to get this. Then patch aborts with some message (for which I dont have time to RTFM - which FM ? Perl ? Patch ? Dist ? ) and so I cannot get dist to work. I thing perl is very nice, but I do not have the time or energy to learn and use it on our system. I always think it is dangerous to use sed or awk, because Vaxes etc dont freely have them....I dont want perl to add to my problems, etc, etc. Anyway the sum of this is that I really want Configure but I dont want to port perl. I know perl has been done but I do not have the time. Maybe perl could be reposted with all the patches applied ? Maybe configure could be not written in perl ? ---- I am just a poor rambler....excuse my posting. ===================== // o All opinions are my own. (O) ( ) The powers that be ... / \_____( ) o \ | /\____\__/ Tel: +44 628 891313 x. 212 _/_/ _/_/ UUCP: fox@marlow.uucp
fortin@zap.UUCP (Denis Fortin) (11/10/88)
In article <UXMr1IyW2k-001OHVZ@andrew.cmu.edu> jl42+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jay Mathew Libove) writes: > Well, Larry (for the first time I've ever seen) made a number of very > very bad assumptions in his configure distribution. > > 1) that you have Perl. Perl doesn't run on 80286 machines. Not at all. >[...] Actually, this isn't true at all. I've successfully ported Perl over to my trusty ol' 80286 machine running under Microport's System V/AT with only a few (quite minimal) modifications... -- Denis Fortin, fortin@zap.uucp fortin%zap.uucp@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu | CAE Electronics Ltd uunet!utai!mcgill-vision!zap!fortin | The opinions expressed above are mine