Re: [PATCH] {maint} Deprecate de-ansification support, it should go away in automake 1.12

[Stefano Lattarini]

[adding automake list in CC: to make this more visible]

Reference:
  <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2011-06/msg00082.html>

On Tuesday 14 June 2011, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> Hello automakers.
> 
> I recall that we agreed, in an older thread I can't find anymore, that
> the support for the automatic de-ANSI-fication features should be removed
> in the next major Automake release (1.12).  The attached patch, for
> maint, makes the first step in that direction, by deprecating the feature
> both in the manual and by means of automake/autoconf warnings (in the
> `obsolete' category).  Ideally, this change should end up into 1.11.2,
> so that any "unlikely user" still using de-ANSI-fication support will be
> given adequate notice about the oncoming removal.
> 
> Note that, in the manual, the de-ANSI-fication features are now declared
> as "deprecated", not simply "obsoleted"; according to wikipedia entry
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprecation>, this seems the right thing
> to do now that we plan to remove such features in the next major release.
> 
> I will push in 72 hours if there is no review nor objection by then.
> 
> Regards,
>   Stefano
> 
Problem: it seems that there are few (and luckily only few) active packages
that still use the `ansi2knr' option:
 1. The latest version (8c) of the libjpeg implementation from IJG (Independent
    JPEG Group, <http://www.ijg.org/>); see the `configure.ac' file from the
    archive <http://www.ijg.org/files/jpegsrc.v8c.tar.gz> 
 2. The latest version of the Lame MPEG encoder 
(<http://lame.sourceforge.net/>);
    see the `Makefile.am.global' file from the latest distributed tarball linked
    at <http://lame.sourceforge.net/download.php>
 3. The git version GNU enscript (<http://www.gnu.org/software/enscript/>); see
    the `Makefile.am' and `afmlib/Makefile.am' files in the official enscript 
git
    repository: <http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=enscript.git>
 4. The Recode project <http://recode.progiciels-bpi.ca/index.html>; see the
    `src/Makefile.am' file in the repo <git://github.com/pinard/Recode.git>.

Luckily, the other references that came up with the google code search:
http://www.google.com/codesearch#search/&q=ansi2knr%20file:%28%28GNUm|M%29akefile\.am|configure\.%29
are all about either abandoned/obsolete packages, or older versions of
packages that, like ntp, gmp, mpfr, inetutils, and wget, have since
stopped to ansi2knr.

So, maybe it would be worthwhile to directly inform the maintainers of the
packages mentioned above that still use de-ANSI-fication feature about its
oncoming deprecation and removal.  WDYT?

Regards,
  Stefano