Re: AC_FLAGS_WARN_ALL changes proposed for inclusion in next autoconf release

[David A. Wheeler]

Paul Eggert [mailto:address@hidden on September 05, 2014 6:25 PM:
> Thanks for getting the ball rolling on this.  A couple of thoughts.
> 
> First, how does this compare to the warnings and manywarnings modules of 
> Gnulib?
...
> Second, from a brief look at the patch it appears that it is derived from 
> code that other people have written, which would mean we'd need to get 
> copyright papers from them too.


On Sun, 7 Sep 2014 10:28:18 -0400, "Visser, Dale" <address@hidden> replied:
> It is quite similar to the modules you mention. It is important to note that 
> here AC_FLAGS_WARN_ALL is by default being invoked by the macros that set 
> compilers for C, C++ or Fortran. From the documentation changes, it is 
> described how this may be turned off...

Excellent!  To me, the key is making warnings the *default* in a 
compiler-independent way, and then letting people turn them off or control them.

> My understanding was that all of the code I adapted was already under 
> projects hosted Gnu, and so the copyright requirements had already been 
> satisfied. I have given credit in the code comments wherever said code was 
> adapted. I'm hoping Mr. Blake can speak authoritatively on this, as I am not 
> an expert on the copyright aspects.

I'm not a lawyer, but I know that FSF is a stickler on copyright assignments.  
FSF has a copyright assignment from Dale Visser's employer, and Dale's code is 
derived from previous FSF code, so I think all the copyright issues are 
addressed.


So... can this be added?  I don't know of any serious objections.

--- David A. Wheeler