merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz) (02/05/90)
In article <1990Feb4.222953.19169@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo (Henry Spencer) writes: | >Maybe some code that would run test compiles to find out if the | >functions are there or not..... with that, build could answer some | >of the questions itself. | It's really hard to do this 100% portably, unfortunately, especially | given the variation in the format of can't-find-this complaints. | (No, going out to the libraries via ar is not the answer -- the libraries | aren't even always in the same places.) Well, why not just steal all the stuff from Larry's Configure and Metaconfigure? The first time I built Cnews (less than a month ago), some of the questions annyoyed me, because when I build Perl and RN on 4 different, it doesn't ask me all those questions (instead, I spend a lot of time just hitting RETURN :-). And RN and Perl have gotten the added benefit of being ported to *many* different architectures, for which the "bugs" in the configuration process have been sorted out and fiddled back into Metaconfigure. (I love the announcement "Congratulations. You aren't running Eunice" at the beginning of Configure for Perl... :-) I know you started out with something else, and you're doing Cnews on a volunteer basis, and I applaud y'all for that. But maybe stealing some of the work of someone else (like Larry) would be the right thing to do here. Just another new news admin (you mean Bnews was *slower*? sheesh!), -- /=Randal L. Schwartz, Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 ==========\ | on contract to Intel's iWarp project, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, Sol III | | merlyn@iwarp.intel.com ...!any-MX-mailer-like-uunet!iwarp.intel.com!merlyn | \=Cute Quote: "Welcome to Portland, Oregon, home of the California Raisins!"=/
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (02/06/90)
In article <1990Feb5.053532.2286@iwarp.intel.com> merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz) writes: >| >Maybe some code that would run test compiles to find out if the >| >functions are there or not..... with that, build could answer some >| >of the questions itself. >| It's really hard to do this 100% portably... > >Well, why not just steal all the stuff from Larry's Configure and >Metaconfigure? ... There were three reasons why we didn't do this, and don't plan to: 1. Our experience with Larry's stuff -- admittedly not with the latest versions -- indicated that it was easily confused by non-standard systems. There are too many variables. For example, programs like nm(1) -- exactly what you want for figuring out such things -- have very system-dependent output formats. [Insert 3000-word flame about System V cretins who don't understand that nm(1) output is useful to programs, not just to humans, and hence should have kept its simple standardized original format.] 2. Automatic answers based on the current system are almost guaranteed to be wrong if you're trying to configure software that will run on some other machine. 3. Out of 70+ questions in build, about fifteen could perhaps be answered automatically with some hope of correctness. Not worth it. -- SVR4: every feature you ever | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology wanted, and plenty you didn't.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu