Re: some general help needed

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Matej,

Besides what was already mentioned:

* Matej Tyc wrote on Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 02:40:53PM CEST:
>       a) What is some "standard root project directory layout" that doesn't
> cause problems and that everybody likes? I have learned that it is good
> to have /src directory, /build-aux dir, /m4 dir and maybe /bin dir, all
> from different sources. Nothing "official" from experienced autotools
> users that would say 'Don't put your object files to the root since it
> becomes a terrible mess afterwards' (wxWidgets project behaves like
> this)

Mostly a matter of taste.  Having build-aux and m4 is good to keep many
helper files out of the way.

Please allow to have the build tree completely separate from the source
tree.

>       b) What is considered to be the smart way how to build documentation
> for the project? How to include doc build to autools setup?

Do you already have documentation in some form?
If not, consider what you and your peer developers are familiar with,
otherwise you can try texinfo.

>       c) How to deal with the fact that the project is multiplatform and the
> build process is not mplatform independent? 

Try to off-load as much of the platform dependencies to autoconf.
The GNU Coding Standards has some guidance, aside from the Autoconf
manual.  More help here if you ask more specific questions.

> 2. I have a library and I would like to make life easy for people that
> will use it and choose autotools to manage their projects. What is the
> standard/simple/portable/smart way how to do this? 
> I have seen a very long macro (AM_PATH_LIB(...)) and some script
> (lib-config) that hasn't always been working very well (problems with
> cross-compilation, ...) How you do this, please?

Use libtool and pkg-config.

> What about an autotools wiki? Autotools are considered "arcane and hard
> to use." But it is mainly due to lack of documentation that young
> developers require, don't you think? 

There is a good tutorial at
<http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~adl/autotools.html>.
It's considerably newer and more up to date than the Autobook.

Somebody has started writing on a new book recently IIRC.

Requests for a wiki have come up before; one problem with a wiki is that
we felt that it would need to be maintained by somebody experienced.  We
prefer that good advice end up in the manuals, or maybe in the above
tutorial

> Please, don't underestimate user-friendliness!

Good point.  As a first, if you ask specific questions on what you tried
and what doesn't work, chances are really high you will be helped on
these lists.

Cheers,
Ralf