Re: [CRAZY PROPOSAL] Automake should support only GNU make

[Guido Draheim]

Am 12.01.2011 19:01, schrieb Stefano Lattarini:
> 
>  GNU make is a basic component of the GNU system, actively maintained and
>  GNU make is very portable, easy to compile, and fully bootstrapping
>  GNU make is the default make program on GNU/Linux (okay, we're in
>  GNU make is readily available in the FreeBSD port collection (and it's
>  GNU make is available as a NetBSD package, for many architectures
>  GNU make should also be available as a Solaris precompiled package:
> 
>  In conclusion, it's not unresonable to expect that a user ready to
>  compile a package from sources will also be ready and capable to obtain,
>  compile and install a non-ancient version of GNU make.
> 
>  I don't think that requiring GNU make (not a specific version, just
>  a less-than-fifteen-years old one) is gonna be an harsh or unreasonable
>  requirement.  And the gains in terms of maintainability, testability,
>  and possibility of optimization are obvous.
> 
> 

Sure GNU Make has subverted most other makefile-systems but there are places
where it CAN NOT be used as a drop-in replacement. The paramount examples are
in larger build-systems with an integrated makefile-system - some IDEs for
embedded targets may have it but I do more think of

* CmSynergy - ships with omake (object make) integrated with version control
* ClearCase - ships with clearmake integrated with its version control

That's more than a third of the version control systems used in the
corporate world. So unless automake would officially dump the support
for the corporate world (which some GNU roughnecks might argue for) it
would be good to NOT allow GNUMake features all around.

Note however that both the systems above do have some extensions over
standard make that are always compatible with GNU Make - simply because
GNU Make has set the de facto standard. So it would be very fair to
assume a specific set of features on top of standard make that are
prevalent in modern makefile-system all around.

But GNU Make on its own has a very large feature-set that is strong enough to
be a build-system on its own. You don't need much of autoconf/automake anymore!!
And this is not just theory because I have already created such a system for
a company - you can run configure-tests with make rules in GNUmake. That's 
because
you can include make-generated makefile-snippets at runtime which is impossible
for most other makefile systems. (originally that feature was meant to allow
"make deps" generating *.dep's and compile the final target in one make-call. 
Here
you can use it to print defines to a makefile-snippet and load it right away.)

cheers, Guido