MESSAGE
DATE | 2021-01-27 |
FROM | Karl Berry
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SUBJECT | Re: [Hangout - NYLXS] Future plans for Autotools
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From hangout-bounces-at-nylxs.com Thu Jan 28 13:39:57 2021 Return-Path: X-Original-To: archive-at-mrbrklyn.com Delivered-To: archive-at-mrbrklyn.com Received: from www2.mrbrklyn.com (www2.mrbrklyn.com [96.57.23.82]) by mrbrklyn.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id D70E0163FBA; Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:39:50 -0500 (EST) X-Original-To: hangout-at-www2.mrbrklyn.com Delivered-To: hangout-at-www2.mrbrklyn.com Received: by mrbrklyn.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 1E4A5163FC0; Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:39:38 -0500 (EST) Resent-From: Ruben Safir Resent-Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:39:38 -0500 Resent-Message-ID: <20210128183938.GA29350-at-www2.mrbrklyn.com> Resent-To: hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com X-Original-To: ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com Delivered-To: ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com Received: from lists.gnu.org (lists.gnu.org [209.51.188.17]) by mrbrklyn.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 39334163FC0 for ; Wed, 27 Jan 2021 21:07:13 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost ([::1]:40330 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1l4wiG-0002ot-Nq for ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com; Wed, 27 Jan 2021 21:07:12 -0500 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:59196) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1l4whH-0002Kh-IO; Wed, 27 Jan 2021 21:06:11 -0500 Received: from freefriends.org ([96.88.95.60]:38300) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1l4whF-0007lb-Ei; Wed, 27 Jan 2021 21:06:10 -0500 X-Envelope-From: karl-at-freefriends.org Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id 10S1lcv6000555 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Wed, 27 Jan 2021 18:47:39 -0700 Received: (from apache-at-localhost) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) id 10S1lcMX000553; Wed, 27 Jan 2021 18:47:38 -0700 Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2021 18:47:38 -0700 Message-Id: <202101280147.10S1lcMX000553-at-freefriends.org> From: Karl Berry To: autoconf-at-gnu.org, automake-at-gnu.org Received-SPF: pass client-ip=96.88.95.60; envelope-from=karl-at-freefriends.org; helo=freefriends.org X-Spam_score_int: -41 X-Spam_score: -4.2 X-Spam_bar: ---- X-Spam_report: (-4.2 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED=-2.3, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: autoconf-at-gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list Subject: Re: [Hangout - NYLXS] Future plans for Autotools X-BeenThere: hangout-at-nylxs.com List-Id: NYLXS Tech Talk and Politics List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Errors-To: hangout-bounces-at-nylxs.com Sender: "Hangout"
I'd just like to suggest that in the event of future significant development on a new automake, or a revamped build system in whatever way, that the new system not be called "autoconf" or "automake".
It seems inevitable to me that any such new system would have incompatibilities with the old, and this would cause trouble both for the new developers (retaining perfect compatibility is hard and ugly, thus typically does not happen), and existing users (their long-time build scripts would be broken).(*)
It would surely be nice for a new system to be "as compatible as possible" with the old, but pretending it is a drop-in replacement seems like it would just lead to bad feelings all around. --best, karl.
(*) This already happened with autoconf 2.70, unfortunately. Even the minor incompatibilities it introduced are a significant barrier for some of us (at least me) to adoption. The kinds of rewrites being talked about here would surely have far more compatibility issues. _______________________________________________ Hangout mailing list Hangout-at-nylxs.com http://lists.mrbrklyn.com/mailman/listinfo/hangout
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