David A. Wheeler: > > I think we can revisit and improve things, but whatever build and > > distribution process changes are made needs to be something that Norm is > > willing to accept. Norm has limited time and his own preferences.
On Fri, 20 Dec 2019 04:52:22 -0800 (PST), "'fl' via Metamath": > Why does he let people waste their time talking if he knows he doesn't want > it ? It's not a waste of time. Norm is happy to let *other* people use the autotools. After all, using the autotools typically produces a Metamath executable with significantly higher performance for certain operations. However, Norm prefers using his own tools & doesn't use the autotools *himself*, at least not at this time. So the compromise has been for Norm to use whatever tools he wants, and Norm simply includes various autotools files like configure.ac in the Metamath release. That makes it *possible* for recipients to use the autotools. Since Norm doesn't run the autotools himself, recipients can't be guaranteed that the "configure" file is up-to-date. Instead, recipients who want to use the autotools have to run "autoreconf" themselves to *generate* the configure file, and then use the configure file as usual to do the rest of the build. Yes, this is more steps than usual. However, this is not completely unknown. You also have to do this extra step with some GNU packages if you download a development version instead of an actual release. It is unusual for *released* software. Typically *releases* of software that support the autotools include a pre-generated configure file that was created by the autotools as part of the process for creating a release. But doing that would require Norm to install & run the autotools. Norm might be willing to do that now, but he didn't want to do that in the past & that change is up to him. I'd be happy to modify the autotools files (e.g., configure.ac) to change things. I just got back from a trip to Florida, & Christmas is coming, but once things get a little quieter I'd be happy to help. I would just need to know what changes need to be made. --- David A. Wheeler -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Metamath" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/metamath/E1iiRY9-0007E6-Vq%40rmmprod07.runbox.
