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Re: 12-true-and-false.patch


From: Akim Demaille
Subject: Re: 12-true-and-false.patch
Date: 09 Mar 2001 08:42:15 +0100
User-agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.1 (Cuyahoga Valley)

Tom Tromey <address@hidden> writes:

> Akim>         * automake.in (read_am_file): TRUE and FALSE are predefined
> Akim>         conditionals.
> Akim>         (&by_condition): Adjust.
> Akim>         (&conditional_string): Recognize (TRUE|FALSE)_(TRUE|FALSE).
> Akim>         (&make_condition): Use it.
> Akim>         * tests/cond9.test: s/FALSE/WRONG/.
> 
> I don't really like the use of TRUE and FALSE, but it's hard to
> conceive of a scenario where a user would want to redefine them.  

I've been driven by the same thinking.

> The reason I don't like them is that I want the future of automake
> to be more sensitive to namespace issues.  

Very much agreed.

If you prefer we can go to small caps, or mixed case.  Or underscores
etc.  Or even 0/1.  But all these solutions seemed to be making it
obscure, while after all TRUE and FALSE are not likely to be used.

> For instance one reason I like the work you're doing on "target
> merging" is that it makes it easier to rename internal targets
> following the new namespace rules.

I understand.

> Is there any way to prohibit the user from doing:
> 
> AM_CONDITIONAL(TRUE, blah)
> 
> ?

Yep, easily from conditional.m4

> If they try this it won't work but will instead be gratuitously
> confusing.
> 
> This patch is ok, but please add some text to the manual indicating
> the predefined TRUE and FALSE conditions (and maybe mention that one
> might want to use them for debugging), and also mention that
> redefining these won't work.

I meant to completely finish this, and then document.  There are some
choices to make, and I am still unsure how I'd like to proceed.  But
if you prefer, I can document incrementally.  If I don't, I _will_
write the documentation at the end.



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