Re: removing the old build/host/target compatibility code (Was: current glibc vs debian sid)

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Oct 24, 2002, Akim Demaille <address@hidden> wrote:

> | % ./configure --host=`tools/config.guess`
> | configure: WARNING: If you wanted to set the --build type, don't use --host.
> |     If a cross compiler is detected then cross compile mode will be used.
[...]

> | checking whether we are cross compiling... no
> |                                           ^^^^
> | 
> | configure didn't found a cross compiler, so it assumes a native
> | build :(
> | 
> | Is this some sort of backward compatibility heuristic that is
> | planned for removal?  When?

> Whenever people think we are ready...

> I am fine with removing the old scheme for 2.55.  I'd like to have an
> opinion from Alexandre Oliva (Hi pal!).

Hi, Akim!  Long time! :-)

For whatever my opinion is worth at such a late stage of the
discussion, I don't think this should be removed in the next 5 years
or so.  This kind of thing needs a lot of time to phase out, given how
pervasive it is.  For at least as long as you can still find a lot of
code out there that uses autoconf 2.13, you shouldn't really drop the
compatibility layer from 2.5x, otherwise you prevent someone from
putting together a collection of packages that configure with both
versions of autoconf.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva   Enjoy Guarana', see http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
Red Hat GCC Developer                 address@hidden, gcc.gnu.org}
CS PhD student at IC-Unicamp        address@hidden, gnu.org}
Free Software Evangelist                Professional serial bug killer