Re: Ebcdic rule

[Eric Siegerman]

On Tue, Oct 02, 2001 at 03:49:31PM -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Yes, but Autoconf-based tools that run on EBCDIC mainframes (e.g. GNU
> make) don't seem to need special Autoconf support.  EBCDICness is
> easily checked at compile-time already, so I don't offhand see why
> this is an Autoconf issue.

1. Autoconf seems philosophically the Right Place for it, since
   it's where all the rest of that work is being done.

2. More practically, doing it once, right, in Autoconf means that
   everyone else doesn't have to reinvent the wheel (perhaps
   incorrectly).  (Suppose that for some reason we can't imagine,
   the 'A'==0xXY test turns out to be insufficient; it'll only
   have to get fixed once.)

Your C-based approach looks the right way to implement the test,
given concerns about echo portability, but that test could live
as easily in an Autoconf macro as in the application(s).

Purely theoretical for me -- I don't expect to ever use an IBM
mainframe again -- but it seems to be of practical import to some
folks.

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        address@hidden
|  |  /
The world has been attacked.  The world must respond ... [but] we must
be guided by a commitment to do what works in the long run, not by what
makes us feel better in the short run.
        - Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada