Re: AC_INIT translates PACKAGE to lower case

[Ralf Corsepius]

Am Fre, 2002-02-01 um 14.34 schrieb Earnie Boyd:
> Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> > 
> > BTW, I would appreciate the other autoconf and automake maintainers to
> > speak up, because apparently a reasonable discussion between Akim and me
> > doesn't seem to be possible anymore.
> 
> 
> First let me say that IANAAM (I Am Not An Autoconf Maintainer) but I'm
> going to give my opinion anyway.
> 
> I agree with your intent Ralf.  But let's stand back and look at what we
> have.
> 
> 1) Autoconf is a tool for configuration purposes to help decide what
> features an environment has or doesn't have and supply values for
> substitution from the Makefile.in files and create Makefile files.
> 
> 2) Automake is a tool for configuration purposes to help create the
> Makefile.in(s) that autoconf uses to create the Makefile(s).
> 
> 3) Automake is wholly dependent on autoconf and must live within the
> bounds with which autoconf places on it.
> 
> 4) Given rule 3, autoconf is in it's rights to implement new features
> that might break backward compatibility with automake.
> 
> 5) Give rule 4, it is therefore automake not autoconf that needs to
> provide for the distribution package name since it is automake that
> creates the Makefile.in.
> 
> Conclusion, Akim is very patronizing in offering the fourth optional
> parameter in AC_INIT.

Well, I understand your rationale, but do not share it. In particular, I
could not disagree more with your last sentence.

>From my POV, Akim is egocentrically pushing things into autoconf,
entirely disregarding other tool's demands. Instead, he is inventing
features and standards which almost nobody will ever need nor notice,
which however break other things, which have been working for ages.

There are reasons why the "lowercasing" has not been noticed until now:
Nobody actually used it and automake voided it anyway.

Furthermore, what you call "patronizing", I call "grace of the tyrant".
You depend on it and are supposed to be pleased if his grace falls on
you - I am not, I feel fooled for nothing by a child not being able to
accept critisim.

Unfortunately this is a fundamental weakness of OpenSoftware development
in general and of the autoconf-project in particular. 


I have been supporting and defending the autoconf project for years, but
the time seems to have come to reconsider my attitude towards autoconf.


Anyway, thank you for having answered to the list. 

Ralf

PS.: Please note, I consider this PM to be confidential.

-- 
Ralf Corsepius 
Forschungsinstitut fuer Anwendungsorientierte Wissensverarbeitung (FAW)
Helmholtzstr. 16, 89081 Ulm, Germany     Tel: +49/731/501-8690
mailto:address@hidden           FAX: +49/731/501-999  
http://www.faw.uni-ulm.de