Re: Why AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED?

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Wed, 25 Jun 2008, Stepan Kasal wrote:
> About the patch I posted:
> I would like to advertise 1).  Thusly, I'd prefer if "autoconf -Wall"
> printed out the message that AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED is probably no longer
> needed.

The problem is that when the functionality is needed, then it is 
needed.  It is not like those systems using signed characters (eg 
Tru64 on Alpha I think) vaporized from the face of the earth. 
Removing AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED then requires a change to the application 
code.  It is not uncommon that the configure script is independently 
updated from the application and if someone actually follows this 
advice, then there may be silent breakage.  In fact, it is becoming 
more and more common for the autotools part of the project to be 
maintained by someone who does not know anything about the internal 
implementation of the application.

Bob
======================================
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/