Re: AS_BASENAME and AS_DIRNAME API change

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Paul,

* Paul Eggert wrote on Sun, Apr 23, 2006 at 09:43:48AM CEST:
> 
> I installed the following fix to work around both problems, by
> changing the API to specify the name of the variable that you're
> assigning to.  I haven't yet fixed the newline bug, but that can wait
> until after 2.60 is out and I can slide some fancier code into
> Autoconf.  I thought it best to fix the API now, while we're still in
> alpha, rather than change it later after it was "stable".
> 
> I also prepended _ to the names of some nearby macros that we probably
> don't want people to use or assume (they're not documented).

AS_DIRNAME *is* documented since 2001-09-18, and in fact used outside
Autoconf.  Removing it breaks Automake-1.9.6 and CVS rather heavily.

AS_VAR_SET_BASENAME sounds as if the macro would be polymorphic, e.g.,
  AS_VAR_SET_BASENAME(foo_$val, bar/baz)

would work; but it doesn't.  (Also note although the *VAR_SET* class of
macros isn't documented ATM, it also is used outside of Autoconf.  There
are still several undocumented-but-widely-used things in this area.)

I am pretty wary of optimization work at this point.  Experience tells
me that it takes much longer than expected to do properly.  I mean, it's
not like we only noticed last week that Autoconf has some slow edges..

Cheers,
Ralf