Re: [PATCH] Add new 'AM_PROG_AR' macro, triggering the 'ar-lib' script.

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Stefano Lattarini wrote on Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 12:16:53AM CEST:
> BTW, I see that the comments to the AC_TRY_EVAL definition in autoconf
> boldly warn againt its use:
> 
>   # The AC_TRY_EVAL and AC_TRY_COMMAND macros are dangerous and
>   # undocumented, and should not be used.
>   # They may be removed or their API changed in a future release.
>   # Autoconf itself no longer uses these two macros; they are present
>   # only for backward compatibility with previous versions of Autoconf
> 
> Should we take this warning seriously? 

Yes.  But there should be a better replacement first.

> After all, if automake does
> not follow good practices w.r.t. use of autoconf, who else will? ;-)

Oh, Automake exploits a number of Autoconf internals.
Work to lessen that is welcome (be that by replacing
with equivalent public API, or by improving Autoconf
first to provide the needed functionality publicly).

Cheers,
Ralf