F77_DUMMY_MAIN (Was: Release 2.51 now?)

[Pavel Roskin]

Hi, Akim!

> Sorry I couldn't pay more attention to Autoconf lately.  It won't
> improve in a short term, IMO.  Therefore, given that there are already
> significant improvements compared to 2.50, I wish we release 2.51 now.

The same is true for me.

I think it's a good idea to make stable releases often.  We have fixed
many problems - it's time to give the users back what they gave us.

There is one minor problem I would like to have fixed before 2.51 is
released.  There are many occurences of F77_DUMMY_MAIN in the projects
that have nothing to do with Fortran.

F77_DUMMY_MAIN occurs 56 times in `configure' for CVS version of libtool
and 230 times (!!!) in `configure' for CVS version of GNU Midnight
Commander.  Neither of those projects uses FORTRAN is any way.

I believe it's a waste of resources.  I don't know why it's needed
in the definition of AC_LANG_PROGRAM(C), but it appears to be the reason
why it is "used" so often.

I'm not aware of any other problems with the CVS version of Autoconf that
could prevent releasing the next stable version.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin