Re: Ebcdic rule

[Harlan Stenn]

Somebody can write an AC_CHARSET_{ASCII,EBCDIC} macro that embodies that
test.

It gets carried around inside autoconf so improvements/changes can be easily
used, and then it gets dropped in to config.h (does
'-DCHARSET_EBCDIC=('A'==0xXY) work as a CFLAG item if config.h isn't being
used?).

Best of both worlds?

H
--
> 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