Re: [FYI] {maint} tests: drop support for older Zsh shells

[Stefano Lattarini]

Hi Dave, thanks for the review.

On 06/23/2012 11:46 AM, Dave Hart wrote:
>
> [SNIP]
>
First of all, I've fixed all the nits you have pointed out, along your
suggestions.  Thanks.

> 
> Which released version numbers of Automake had the just-fixed Zsh
> compatibility bug?
>
Automake 1.12.

> I am trying to get a feel for how many people
> might have been exposed to justify the sentiment that support for
> older versions of Zsh is unwarranted.
>
There is another issue to consider here: several older versions of Zsh
in the 4.x series had a bug in handling of stderr redirection when
"set -x" was in effect, and this bug has been known to cause some
spurious errors in the Automake testsuite since at least Automake 1.11:

  <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-automake/2009-08/msg00020.html>

No real user, maintainer or developer ever reported that bug, which
probably means that nobody is actually using Zsh to run the testsuite.

> Automake improvements can take
> some time to reach end users, as many maintainers of packages using it
> do not aggressively upgrade the latest release of Automake, but rather
> stick with whatever version they're using until a compelling
> improvement prompts an upgrade.
> 

Regards,
  Stefano