support for ports in libtool (was: libtool wrapper: mingw32ce does not support errno)

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Vincent, Eric, all,

* Vincent Torri wrote on Thu, Oct 09, 2008 at 03:08:20PM CEST:
> On Thu, 9 Oct 2008, Eric Blake wrote:
>> According to Vincent Torri on 10/9/2008 12:22 AM:
>>>> You've gone this far now, how about you try to redo the patch based on
>>>> the comment above, then try to write a ChangeLog entry for it, too, and
>>>> then we look at it again?  I'm sure you can do it!
>>>
>>> done, but seriously, you can do it too...
>>
>> Ralf is right - the point of open source is that anyone should be able to
>> scratch their own itch.  We don't have unlimited time, so the more work
>> you do in scratching your itch, the easier it makes our job to just
>> include your patch rather than repeat the work for something that is not
>> scratching our itch.  By encouraging you to submit better patches, we are
>> trying to empower you, rather than doing it all ourselves.
>
> And you think that I have plenty of time ?

No; well, we cannot know that in advance.  I'm sure all of the parties
involved have far too little time to pursue all goals they have.

We don't expect you to fix things.  Well, maybe we should have asked
you, before incorporating WinCE support:

  Do you have time to support Libtool's port to WinCE?  The work is not
  done with the initial port to this platform.  It needs regular
  re-testing, esp. before releases, to ensure that no regressions have
  crept in.  This may require further efforts to fix them.

  This work need not be done by you.  But it needs to be done by someone
  and this someone must have access to the system in question, and some
  experience with it, too.  If we cannot find any volunteer, then we
  unfortunately cannot support the port.

We have so far not asked such questions, because typically, new ports in
Libtool were rather low-maintenance (with the notable exception of ports
that carry "win" in its name).  Maybe it is time to change that policy.

And certainly I too would like to see more of the issues you noted being
addressed.  We are grateful for the porting work you have done already,
and would love to see more of it.

But the fact is, doing these things take work, time, and thought, and
review does, too.  The current support for MS platforms has become
sufficiently non-modular that changes are likely to introduce
regressions on untested other MS systems.  That is a dangerous path to
follow.

> But I think that it can be usefull for other people too to have support 
> of the mingw32ce compiler in libtool.

Yes.  And we're really on the same page here.  It's just that we cannot
know in advance how much time and effort you are able or willing to
spend, which is why I asked about it.  No bad feelings if you can't
provide more, but it would be a good opportunity to get someone else
into the game if you do have time.

Cheers,
Ralf (will review the patch when time permits)