Re: [gnu-prog-discuss] Could automake-generated Makefiles required GNU make?

[Dave Hart]

At the risk of repeating myself from the last time this question came
up, let me selfishly say as a NTP maintainer that I do not look
forward to NTP configure failing with a message indicating GNU make is
required and could not be located.  I have no appreciation for how
much simpler and easier to maintain Automake might become with a shift
from targetting portable make to requiring GNU make.  I've never
maintained Makefile or Makefile.am files in a GNU-make-only project.
I do find it is sometimes easier to track down problems affecting both
GNU make and more traditional implementations using a traditional make
as the verbose debug output of GNU make is so much longer due to more
implicit rules.

It would be my inclination to stay with older Automake as long as
feasible if newer Automake drops support for traditional make.  Harlan
Stenn, who initially converted the NTP code to use Autoconf and
Automake, likely has a different perspective which might well matter
more than mine.

Cheers,
Dave Hart