> I think letting AC_PREREQ affect _any_ macro semantics is a really bad > idea (except of course: let autoconf fail if the version is too old). > Here's why: that AC_PREREQ could be hidden in some third- or > fourth-party macro imported from whereever, and there is no control by > the configure.ac author (or macro file author) over the choice of > semantics.
Even though I propose the usage of AC_PREREQ, I agree. So, unless some other brilliant idea comes, I am afraid the transition will have to be prolonged for a while. Hopefully, the improved performance will stimulate adoption of Autoconf 2.64 (though there are many packages that still have to adapt for datarootdir and are not upgrading for that reason). Paolo
