Re: [RFC] Short- and medium-term proposal for AC_CHECK_* overhauling

[Bonzini]

> How about using them for whatever they are capable of and make
> the primary goals be speed of operation, then ease of maintenance
> then bulk?  Exploit their (portable) capabilities.

You're right in principle.  However, because of the final goal of 
specialization, ease
of maintainance can also depend (on the long term) on how you can make usage of 
macros
equivalent to that of (these particular) shell functions.  That's why my first 
project
is to replace macro expansions with shell function invocation; you cannot do

if AC_CHECK_FUNC(strerror); then
  ...
else
  ...
fi

you use cache variables for that.

Paolo