Re: [Adonthell-devel] Freetype and SWIG configure checks

[Kai Sterker]

On Wednesday 06 March 2002 22:34, you wrote:

> Unless I missed something, it seems to me that testing SWIG in the
> Makefile whenever py_adonthell_wrap.cc needs to be rebuild is sufficiant
> and covers all cases, no? So why adding an additional check in the
> configure?

Because that's what configure is there for. Stupid answer, I agree ;).
More seriously, if you put the check into the Makefile, you need to copy it 
to every Makefile that uses SWIG, which is not so nice.

Actually, the warning configure displays now should be enough already. If we 
include another warning into the makefile, I consider this a special service 
for our users, but it's not what you would normally do.


> The user would be warned that he needs SWIG sooner, true. But
> he might also just want some Makefiles ready to be able to build the
> tools which doesn't depend on the Python wrappers - and this would be
> impossible in this case. 

No python scripting for the tools? ;)
Anyway, that would only be true for those who get the CVS code and want to 
build only the tools, which would be practically nobody. Those who get the 
distribution will see a warning, nothing else. 


> I'd say, making the Makefile test more accurate
> so it correctly detects SWIG's version and displays a message would do
> it better. The user would only be warned a few minutes later that he has
> to get SWIG - and he wouldn't even need to run the configure script
> again to continue his build, so that catches with the warning delay ;)

Well, that's about the only real disadvantage of the configure script. But 
OTOH, nobody complains if they have to rerun configure 'cause their SDL or 
Python wasn't recent enough - so why should they complain about SWIG.

Still if you want to keep the test in the makefile (and I'm all for this), 
you can copy'n paste stuff from configure.in. If it works there, it'll work 
in the Makefile too. 

I just think it should remain in the configure script as well, for the 
reasons given above.

Kai