So, in my opinion, these last 8 dirs here + pdfdir and psdir should be
removed from the standards until they're available with a stable version
of GNU Autoconf.
Hmm. I see your point, but the autotools developers and I worked hard
to get those variables specified; the idea was that standards.texi
defined what will be implemented. We weren't at all sure that rms would
approve the notion or if he would want changes, etc.
Also, I have the feeling that various other items in the standards are
implemented imperfectly, so it wouldn't make sense to generally take out
everything until it was implemented. I agree it's unfortunate that this
particular mismatch is especially unfortunate, and the standards
could/should warn about it. I'll see if I can do something about that.
BTW, some of the non-doc variables you listed are definitely expanded
already, for instance, @srcdir@ is basic.
(I wonder when the next Autoconf might be released.)
Thanks,
Karl