On 2009/2/22, Nils Kneuper wrote:
> The basic reason is that when autotools are used, users *expect* to find
> configure files and do not expect to run ./autogen.sh first. When using scons 
> or
> cmake to build users know that they have to install it separately. Even more
> important (to me) is that as long as we use autotools as build system users
> probably expect configure to be there and that they can go on as before. When
> announcing that autotools (and thus configure) are no longer supported, they
> know that something changed and they got to adopt.
>
> I hope you understand what I want to say with the stuff above.

I think I understand, but I don't agree.

Think about it, how can a user know which build system is in use? If
she sees a Sconstruct file and knows that they are used by scons, she
will know that she can run scons. But you seem to think that, if she
sees a configure.ac file and knows that they are used by autotools,
she won't know that she can run autogen.sh. I mean, come on, how could
she know what .ac files are and not know about autogen.sh?

To make it clearer, there are two different cases:

1. You remove configure only.
2. You remove both configure and autogen.sh.

In both cases, you can package by doing svn export. In both cases,
users can no longer run ./configure directly from the archive. In both
cases, if a user expects to run ./configure and doesn't know what
autogen.sh is, then she has to read the INSTALL file and decide which
build system to use (either that or she will notice the Sconstruct and
CMakeList.txt files first).

But in the first case only can a user who knows what autogen.sh is get
a configure file.

In other words, (a) either people don't know what autogen.sh is and
removing this file won't help them to build wesnoth (how could it?!),
(b) or they know what the file is and its removal will annoy them just
for the sake of breaking one of the three currently-working build
systems.

But again, if a second build system is removed along the way, I'm
perfectly fine with having only one system left at the end.

Best regards,

Guillaume

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