Re: optional features and AC_ARG_WITH

[Gregorio Guidi]

On Wednesday 23 March 2005 21:14, Paul Eggert wrote:
> > +The following example shows how to use the @code{AC_ARG_WITH} macro in
> > +a very common situation. You want to let the user decide whether to
> > enable
>
> Remove "very".
> Use English spacing after sentences; i.e., two spaces after the period.
>
> > +support for an external library (e.g., the readline library); if the
> > user +did not specify neither @option{--with-readline} nor
>
> did not specify -> specified
>
> > +    [support fancy command line editing <default=check>])],
>
> Defaults should be in square brackets, not angle brackets.

Thanks for the suggestions, they are included below.

> One more-general comment: there is a lot of duplication here in the
> three examples.  Can you rewrite it to give just one example, and
> then briefly discuss the modifications needed for the other two cases?
> That would make it easier to follow.

Yes, I thought about it. However, in a way it is justified:
the whole point behind this proposal is that there is not a clear indication 
on the "standard" way to use AC_ARG_WITH.  This is not just a teorethical 
statement, but is reflected in real world situations in a manifold of 
non-standard uses of that macro that really hurts us distributors, for the 
reasons discussed previously on this list.
I think there's a gain in being as clear as possible when presenting the macro 
to the user in the autoconf manual, even if there's a bit of redundancy.

Anyway, the patch below is just a suggestion.  Feel free to take only the bits 
that you find appropriate for the manual.

Gregorio

autoconf-ac_arg-doc.patch
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