Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Features command for arch

[Robert Anderson]

--- Original Message ---
From: David Allouche <address@hidden>
To: GNU Arch Users <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Features command for arch

>Matthieu Moy wrote:
>> "Robert Anderson" <address@hidden> writes:
>> 
>> > I haven't really been keeping up with this discussion, but isn't
>> > all of this what 'configure' and configure scripts are for?
>> 
>> autoconf is an interesting hack that will allow you to deal with
>> software not having the feature proposed here.
>[...]
>> Another example : you installed a tla front-end, and
afterwards, you
>> upgrade/downgrade your version of tla. Then the front-end
could adapt
>> itself to the new version of tla without having to re-run
configure.
>
>What I have in mind, exactly.

But it re-runs 'configure' (in an abstract sense) anyway; it's
just that 'configure' in that case is faster because the results
are in some sense cached inside tla, so you could conceivably run
it every time you start the front-end.

I don't think it's much more trouble for the front-end to re-run
'configure' (in a literal sense) when it detects a different tla
is being used from last time 'configure' was run.  If you're
going to do something really crazy like use a different tla every
time you run the front end, the front-end could hash the
executables to an array of configurations.

I think the 'configure' model is more than an "interesting hack."
 It's pretty much ubiquitous, and ubitquitous for good reason.

Bob