Re: pattern rules example

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

() Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden>
() Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:33:15 +0200

   there are a couple of reasons I'd prefer a
   slightly different example: [reasons]

Thanks for the prompt review; i agree redundant overlap is undesirable.

   [...] SUFFIXES [...]

Ack.

   Can we find a transformation that is known to most readers, not already
   done by automake, general enough to be portable, and short enough to
   serve as a quick example?  If a real-world one can't be found, then we
   can still use a fake .foo -> .bar one.

One real world example (that is, real for me) is generation of .texi from
another format (in my case, .texh).  However, this is a messy area WRT
source vs target directories (info "(standards) Standard Targets"),
specifically:

     Normally a GNU distribution comes with Info files, and that means
     the Info files are present in the source directory.  Therefore,
     the Make rule for an info file should update it in the source
     directory.  When users build the package, ordinarily Make will not
     update the Info files because they will already be up to date.

I would guess you are quite familiar with the surrounding issues, given the
long comment in ‘handle_texinfo_helper’ beginning:

      # Until Automake 1.6.3, .info files were built in the
      # source tree.  This was an obstacle to the support of
      # non-distributed .info files, and non-distributed .texi
      # files.
 
So .foo -> .texi can be excluded, i think.  Perhaps the OP context of
converting an image from one format to another is as good as any.  It is
real-world; it can be adapted to cohese w/ the GNU Coding Standards should the
latter be extended to image formats in the future.  Hmmm, having written that,
a similar idea (in spirit) comes to mind: .cdda -> .ogg -- WDYT?

   [...] placement of the description isn't optimal.
   [...] A pattern example would better fit [elsewhere]

OK, next patch will incorporate these suggestions.